GE Security, with support from San Francisco International Airport (SFO), has unveiled a first-of-its-kind laboratory it expects will help identify, develop and make available technology solutions that will help to make air travel safer, security potentially less costly and negotiating passenger checkpoints more convenient.

The “Checkpoint of the Future” laboratory, adjacent to SFO’s international terminal concourse A, passenger security area, offers a complete, real-world lane for evaluating existing and emerging security products and technologies. The lab’s aim is to identify technology solutions that may dramatically improve checkpoint security while driving down the total cost of ownership for government and airport operators around the world.

An expected benefit of research to be conducted at the checkpoint lab is significant enhancements to passenger convenience through reduced requirements for divestiture of clothing and other items. It’s hoped that the lab will identify solutions that improve security while eventually eliminating the need for passengers to remove shoes and coats, as well as cell phones and other items from their pockets, or laptop computers from their bags.

In its initial configuration, the checkpoint lab will examine the benefits of using three emerging technologies not in current use for passenger screening operations to deliver on the vision for the passenger checkpoint of the future. They include millimeter wave and quadruple resonance for scanning passengers and their shoes for the presence of threat objects. Computed tomography (CT), already used extensively for screening of passengers’ checked bags, will also be used for screening their carry-on items.

In its current configuration, the lab is not being used for screening of actual passengers for entry to secure portions of the airport, though its public location may in the future allow for public testing of various products and solutions.