Air travel, especially to unfamiliar airports, can be stressful. Packing and getting to the airport a few hours early is only the start of the journey. You then need to get your boarding pass, check your bags, and go through security. After that, it’s pretty much a constant cycle of looking at the airport displays to view your flight status, and making sure you get to your gate in time to board. At bigger airports, finding your gate can be an even greater struggle, particularly if you’re transiting with a short layover.
At CES 2020, however, Delta announced that it was investing in Parallel Reality displays. The groundbreaking technology would be able to display personalized information tailored to each passenger. This means that when you look at the display, only you would see your flight information, including your flight number, gate number, boarding time, and upgrade status. Delta debuted this Parallel Display Experience in June 2022 at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and if you’re a Delta passenger flying out of Detroit, you can actually experience this futuristic technology firsthand.
TikTok video shows Delta’s Parallel Reality Experience
A video by TikTok user Daniel Mac shows just how seamless Delta’s Parallel Reality Experience is. The short starts with a person recording Mac walking through the Parallel Reality Experience zone. The display first offers the flight information for the person recording the video, and then changes to Mac’s flight information when he grabs the phone. The screen displays a personalized greeting, alongside the gate number, walk time to the gate, flight number, destination, and departure time. Other passengers are asked if they can see the same information, and one lady says that she can only “see a picture of an airplane.”
@itsdanielmac Does This Technology Cross The Line? 🤔 #futuretech #technology #tech
Delta’s Parallel Reality Experience allows up to 100 passengers to see their flight information on one display, at the same time. The displays use a multi-view pixel technology that directs different colored light to different viewing zones. This allows multiple people to see different information on the screen, and ensures only you can see your own flight information. A non-biometric, overhead sensor constantly detects your position and adjusts the viewing angle, ensuring that your information is always visible.
How to experience Delta’s Parallel Reality technology
Delta’s Parallel Reality technology is available to experience for passengers departing and taking connecting flights from Detroit Metropolitan Airport specifically. The experience zone is located at Concourse A of the McNamara Terminal. If you’re taking a Delta flight from Detroit, here’s how you can experience Parallel Reality first hand:
Go through security and look for the Parallel Reality zone near the Delta Sky Club.
Tap the display at the kiosk, and opt-in for the experience by scanning your paper boarding pass or digital boarding pass in the FlyDelta app.
Enter the viewing area to see your personalized display.
Continue to your gate after viewing your flight information.
Passengers who don’t opt in for the Parallel Reality experience will see generic and Delta-branded content on the screen. According to Delta, the technology uses anonymous, non-biometric object detection to display unique information on the screen, and does not make use of facial recognition. Essentially, this means that the technology detects you as an object and doesn’t recognize your facial features. Delta also claims that the experience is entirely opt-in, and customer information is not stored.
While Parallel Reality is only available as a beta experience in Detroit airport at the moment, Delta hopes to bring it to more venues in the future, including stadiums, shopping centers, and entertainment venues.
