Queuing Up In Amazement

Most airports now feature queues for security checking, with people snaking along inside rows of low level barriers constructed from metal tubing. The idea is make this procedure part of a sort of natural selection process, by converting the queuing barriers into the walls of an elaborate maze that’s under the control of a smart central processor.

Here’s how it works: On a quiet day, the maze is very simple and people can negotiate it with total ease. On much busier days where congestion is a significant issue, the controller will automatically reconfigure the maze, making it more and more convoluted by adding and moving barriers, thereby extending the corridors the passengers must negotiate. It’s entirely possible to keep people wandering around in there for up to an hour.

As people enter they are given a colour. Moving lines of LEDs corresponding to the colour that must then be followed. This means that people head off into the maze in different directions, dutifully following their assigned colour. The smart ones will of course ignore this and may naturally find their way out in less time. If congestion begins to ease up, the maze will adjust itself to increase the flow of people.

Queuing Up In Amazement is a bit of an adventure instead of the dreary lines all shuffling along in the same direction.