The parallel reality right? Let’s all get ready for some fiction to board Detroit airport, shall we? On a normal bright day when our thoughts are filled with the upcoming to-do tasks for the day. We happened to encounter this huge white arch type of thing that has large English fonts stating “PARALLEL REALITY EXPERIENCE “. We are still bewildered to pass through this arch which may or may not lead to Narnia land yet still, while these thoughts are popping in our head we happened to have walked into it already.
Well, the good part is it didn’t make us teleport, obviously that was my first thought when I read a “parallel reality “ word - on an arch - at an airport. And the bad part is this arch is simply making us cross it only to follow these blue stickers that have been marked as the walking path. Okay now, this path took me straight to a counter where these friendly smiling people from Delta airlines are asking the rushing flight boarders to scan their flight tickets. Okay, that’s just a usual drill at the airport, nothing suspicious at all right? So, we innocent flight boarders are doing it as per their request and walking to the path where they are asking us to move towards. And so, finally, we happen to see the FIDS(Flight Information Display System) give us satisfaction by approving us that we are on time for our boarding by displaying the flight information. But..but.. the thing is we all happen to see only our bespoke flight information in huge fonts. Well, FIDS is doing its job, right? Yes! That’s right but how is it possible that my eye can see only my information? The same applies to others who come to FIDS for their boarding details.
This fiction made me feel both fascinated as well freaky! So, let’s get out of this wonderful fiction to understand some science, shall we?
Once the customer scans their flight ticket the scanner records the details of this person and displays it in their private zone as they move forward to stand on the viewing area in front of the FIDS screen.
This is a simple record of the data and display system, no biggie here.
Few wall-mounted cameras keep scanning their respective customers' movements as they walk across in the viewing zone. And allegedly this fascinating thing happens by just recording each customer's body shape and size, the so-called non-biometric parameters to identify an individual.
See, bio-metrics measures an individual's unique features to differentiate them from the others like their fingerprint, palmprint, retinal, iris, facial measurement, and so on. Meaning anything that can be used to distinguish you from others would be majorly used as a parameter in the biometric measures. And in non-biometrics other aspects than the ones mentioned above would be measured like the way we walk, body size, and height. So basically, anything that is not unique to an individual yet can be recorded as a data to identify an individual by having a repository of his/her information stored and edited as a mining place to dig any information about you.
We are not there yet with the non-biometrics but this is the process though. We are just a few years away from such a data repository for each individual who is fond of shopping or even starts to purchase anything online, just one click is enough to open your repository account with your purchased or surfed brand.
Parallel reality is that the pixels that could emit one color at a time manage to emit thousands of colors from one pixel which is visible to the person standing in that one particular direction. And this is fixed when that person even moves around that viewing zone.
This also means that multiple people are viewing the same pixel at the same time yet the light showcases different information. And that is perceived by customers with unique information. Cool right? See..
For example, It’s like those images which show us smiling faces and normal faces when viewed from a different angle.
Normally, a pixel would have its feature to display one particular color at a time. If they are assigned to showcase green then that's it's task and typically our LCD TVs or our PC has RGB pixels but that RGB is the assigned task for the pixel with an RGB band of color. So, ideally, a pixel can emit only one color at a time and that technology has been redefined by this multi-pixelated technology which is made possible in this Detroit Airport's FIDS screen.
And this is why the information is visible to different people at the same time and that too is possible with just our naked eye.
The information is displayed in the usual manner, like the people standing in front of the screen can read their boarding details. But the catch here is, pixels in that FIDS screen use a spectrum of color targeting its assigned audience to see their personalized data about their flight details which they have scanned at the counter a minute ago.
This technology can display the content in any of the languages we prefer to see the information in. So, this technology services us with multi- pixelated and multilingual technology too.
This system is fed with more than one language so that the people who are native to another country than the USA can see it in their native language.
This sorcery was made possible by Misapplied sciences, a VC-backed startup based out of Washington D.C. and then Delta Airlines. They collabed in creating this futuristic technology to showcase this imminent reality for the world to experience for the first time through Detroit Airport.
This is the real future because the brands have already invested a huge chunk of money into marketing their targeted ads in a personalized manner based on location and sensor technology which is already embedded in your smartphones. Soon, when you walk by in the city the display board outside the shops and the billboards would be showing you the shoes you kept in the amazon kart or the cute lehenga you browsed in Myntra for your cousin's upcoming mehandi function. Stay tuned science fiction won't be fiction anymore, it will be purely a technology -made possible with a simple-science world soon.