Touchless bag drop technology from Amadeus is being tested at Heathrow Airport, U.K. The touchless bag drop technology uses proximity sensors to allow passengers to check-in their luggage without touching the screens on the kiosks.
The new contactless experience has initially been installed on six of Heathrow’s Auto Bag Drop (ABD) units provided by ICM Airport Technics, an Amadeus company.
The Amadeus contactless solution sees an infra-red proximity sensor installed along the top edge of the bag drop screen, which detects the passenger’s finger as far as 3cm from the screen surface. This allows passengers to interact with the bag drop unit as usual but without the need to physically touch the screen.
Amadeus and Heathrow have been testing several contactless technologies for self-service over recent months, including ‘screen mirroring’, which allows the passenger to operate an ABD unit with their own mobile device. Following extensive testing, it was decided to move forward with the proximity sensor approach. Upon completion of the proximity sensor trial, all check-in kiosks and ABD units could be upgraded in a matter of weeks so that all passengers can access contactless check-in and bag drop.
Amadeus recently delivered an end-to-end contactless solution for Avinor at 17 of its airports in Norway.
