Airport Check-in: Ft. Lauderdale eatery adds self-ordering stations
— -- FORT LAUDERDALE
Chili's Too puts self-ordering to work
Self-ordering, a trend at casual restaurants, is available at Fort Lauderdale International. At Chili's Too Margarita Bar, customers can use its four table-top computerized stations to order food and play video games. "It speeds up service and provides some fun entertainment options," says Glen White, a spokesman for Delaware North, a concessionaire at the airport that runs the restaurant.
UWink, which developed the technology, is a California-based digital media firm led by Nolan Bushnell, founder and former CEO of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese.
MIAMI
Part of AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed on Concourse E
Miami International is displaying sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in honor of World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) and the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS, which took place last week in Fort Lauderdale.
The quilt, sponsored by the Names Project Foundation, began in San Francisco in 1987 with one panel. It now has more than 47,000 panels, each commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS.
Portions of the quilt are on display on the second level of Concourse E until December.
BALTIMORE
Southwest pilots test security process
Hoping to speed up the security-clearing process for airport workers, the Transportation Security Administration is testing a biometric access system at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Developed by Chicago-based Priva Technologies, the system identifies and authenticates individuals at security checkpoints using their fingerprints.
Pilots for Southwest Airlines are testing the program.
Participants must undergo an enrollment process, which stores their fingerprints, photograph and other security information in a small device that resembles a thumb drive.
Pilots place the drive on a reader at the checkpoint and register a fingerprint, and a TSA agent confirms their identity.
"We fully expect to get a green light from TSA to expand the program. Our goal is to make the program permanent," said Carl Kuwitzky, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association, in a statement.
