Originally Posted by
HawaiiTrvlr
On Friday, I went to meet a guest arriving at DEN. Since I had about 20 minutes before their flight, I walked around the 2 checkpoints in the main hall. It wasn't very busy at the time I was there. Anyways, at the entrance of both main checkpoints there is a TSA worker with an iPad looking device. As a passenger approaches, the worker intructs them to touch the screen. The screen then shows an arrow. Get a left arrow and you are directed to the regular screening line or get a right arrow and you join the TSA Pre-check line. If a family approached the line, only one person had to touch the screen. The arrow selection seemed to be fairly random but I didn't count the arrows vs passengers.
Another massive waste of taxpayer $$, but to answer your question, yes, it's new. Some Canadian airports have had something similar for years, IIRC. It's a 'randomizer' that assigns people to a more or less invasive screening experience. It's one of many different things you may witness around the country right now.
The good news may be that TSA is trying to improve the screening process - to improve effectiveness and possibly, to even improve the pax experience.
As much as I deplore the waste of taxpayer$ on new gizmoes, better these over-priced new devices than more NoS machines.