Airport And Software CLEARance

I signed up for a trial offer for CLEAR. Hopefully soon, this will be the norm of how we get screened at airports. Looking back over the last 10 years, I mean, it’s pretty ridiculous how backward our security is at airports. Here’s the CLEAR process, in a nutshell: You signup online. You pay. You answer some questions. Then, you have to visit an enrollment center and go through the machine — it captures your finger prints (all 10), does two (2) iris scans, and scans your driver’s license and passport. The machine is huge, like an old arcade game.

I won’t get into the specifics of how in-efficient CLEAR is, because it’s better than the alternative of waiting in long lines. In order to do this, you have to suffer through CLEAR’s online onboarding (not good), visit an enrollment center, and then wait 7-10 days for a credit card-like card from CLEAR. What?

Anyway, the main takeaway for me was the size of the machines. Or, put another way: Why isn’t this all just software on an iPad? Why can’t the iPad camera take pictures of my irises? Why can’t software take an impression of my fingerprints on glass? Am I missing something as to why this machine could only fit on a big flatbed truck? Look at this picture below….curious to hear your thoughts.