After yesterday’s news concerning the plot to detonate liquid explosives on aircraft (a big no surprise this was bound to come up), one of the things that’s been on my mind is exactly what the Brand Noise blog talks about (Link): how will businesses and manufacturers adapt? The post is much more down to earth than what I had in mind though. I was thinking about how rapid manufacturing technology could be used by airport stores to create custom containers on the spot. They could have embedded date/time codes which could be visually checked. This would ensure that they couldn’t be used for air travel at a later time when someone has perhaps modified one and filled it with something unpleasant.

Imagine a company that opens a baby supply kiosk which had something like this. They would literally fab a bottle on demand using the daily timecode. The design of the bottle would make filling it difficult (the operator would use a custom device to fill it) and besides, these services are after the checkpoint . And when the container is empty, it goes back to the company for recycling. There could be drop points right inside the airport. Someone drops in a container, the receiver checks to ensure it’s the right object (could use the date code or some other embedded identifier), and the person gets a small refund.

That’s literally off the top of my head and probably has some serious issues. But imagine the possibilities. Often the problem of someone RP’ing a weapon is raised (like my earlier example – reLink), but there are also undoubtedly some interesting solutions that will make life easier… and safer. Unfortunately, it appears we’ll have to start thinking about that last aspect as well.