In Singapore yesterday, the International Air Transport Association, which represents most global carriers, introduced the prototype for a new security checkpoint that could reduce the airport screening process to just minutes... for some people. The "Checkpoint of the Future" would enable "low-risk passengers" with clean records to breeze through security with just an eye scan. "Passengers should be able to get from curb to boarding gate with dignity," IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said yesterday. Great, now we suppose they will all want dignity.

The prototype would sift through passengers using a chip in a passenger's passport and an eye-scan to verify identity. They would then be funneled into one of three high-tech, 20-foot-long (6.1-meters-long) tunnels that can quickly scan shoes and carry-on luggage and check for liquids and explosives, the AP reports. The "low-risk" group could glide through the screening process with in minutes, while the most suspicious group would be sent through the tunnel that performs a full body scan while searching for explosives and other weapons.

U.S. Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole reviewed the security system yesterday and called it a "great idea," adding that he hopes to implement within five years. "It's something that's long overdue," said Pistole. "We're not at the checkpoint of the future yet but we're working toward that. I think eventually we will see something similar into a chip in a passenger's passport or other identification. An eye scan would then match the passenger to the passport." And purveyors of black market eyeballs just saw dollar signs!

The TSA plans to start some sort of pilot program within a year, but here comes the ACLU to make sure your junk is touched indefinitely. Objecting to the use of federal money to develop iris scanning technology, an ACLU lawyer told the Today Show, "If you can identify any individual at a distance and without their knowledge, you literally allow the physical tracking of a person anywhere there's a camera and access to the Internet." Isn't this already basically reality? We're tired of resisting Big Brother, let's just get it over with and get the microchip tracking implants that will get us through security and to the Cinnabon STAT. [Via The Atlantic Wire]