Hm... My curiosity is piqued. I'm really interested to get a look at these things and to know what they are.
If they're suspended directly above the queue, then they're most likely not cameras. But SeriouslyLost might be on the right track. They could be radiation monitors of some sort.
They could be microphones, recording the queue, adding sound to the video cameras that are already in place. I'm torn on that; I'd love for recorded incidents to have sound along with video, but I hate the idea of some TSA or local LEO in a perv booth somewhere listening in on private conversations.
They might also be some sort of crazy chemical sniffers, like the puffer portals.
Or they could be part of the regular building safety systems and not a security device at all; they might be some kind of thermal, smoke, CO/radon/CO2 detectors, or air quality monitors.
They might even be motion sensors tied to the lighting system, designed to turn off lights when an area is not occupied to save energy. It would be just like a government agency to install them in one of the most well-traveled, constantly-occupied areas of the terminal as a "test".
Originally Posted by
redii
I didn't snap a picture of it, no... they generally frown on that kind of stuff.
To which "they" are you referring, TSA, or the local LEOs?
Photography and videography are not prohibited at the c/p by the TSA. There may be local bans instituted by airport authorities or local governments (IMHO those are completely un-Constitutional but many have not been challenged in court so they are still in place). However, most local LEOs won't enforce the imaging bans unless you try to image them.