This biometric airport tech is both thrilling and terrifying

By now, travelers are intimately familiar with the fingerprinting process: place your right index on the pad and the digital scanner takes a snapshot. Of course, this used to be done with ink, but the fingerprint scanner eventually became the first biometric technology to be deeply integrated into the travel process.

The first digital scanner used in the U.S. was called the US-VISIT, and it was deployed in 2007 to capture each of the 10 digits of arriving travelers. It allowed travelers to be easily scanned when crossing borders, eliminating the security gaps created by relying on only a photograph and signature to match documents to a traveler.

But in recent years, a new wave of biometric technology has become increasingly common at airports, and there are always more ideas being tested — some fascinating, others somewhat creepy. Click through below to see some of the technologies you'll soon be facing during your travels, and a few you've already probably come across:

[sigallery id="shUZxvm2LCsWDkECMp4FUi" title="Biometric Technologies in Travel" type="sigallery"]