Outsight Wins the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award

Frequently Asked Questions

• What generation of people counting technology is LiDAR considered, and what came before it?

  LiDAR-based tracking is considered the third generation of people and vehicle monitoring technology. The first generation used basic counters such as infrared beams and inductive loops. The second generation adopted stereo-vision cameras, deployed at scale in airports roughly a decade ago. LiDAR surpasses that second generation in depth accuracy, coverage range, and privacy properties, since it captures geometry and motion rather than images. Outsight formalizes this progression through the concept of the Motional Digital Twin, a real-time 3D replica of how people, vehicles, and robots move through a site, built on infrastructure-mounted LiDAR rather than on the moving entities themselves.

• How does a multi-vendor LiDAR platform handle sensors from different manufacturers in the same deployment?

  A hardware-agnostic LiDAR software platform ingests raw point clouds from sensors made by different manufacturers and normalizes them into a single unified 3D scene. Each sensor's output is registered to a shared coordinate system during calibration, so a mixed-hardware deployment, where one zone of an airport uses one sensor brand and another zone uses a different brand, feeds the same analytics pipeline without requiring separate processing stacks per manufacturer. Outsight's SHIFT platform takes this approach across sensors from Hesai, RoboSense, Ouster, Velodyne, and Seyond, all unified into one real-time pipeline. This multi-vendor compatibility is particularly relevant in large-scale airport environments, such as the deployment at Dallas Fort Worth, where infrastructure scale and phased hardware procurement make vendor flexibility a practical necessity.

• What KPIs does a spatial intelligence platform typically deliver to airport operators?

  Airport operators typically receive KPIs covering occupancy per zone, passenger queue length and estimated wait time, throughput at checkpoints, dwell time in retail or gate areas, and vehicle counts at curbside drop-off zones. Alerts fire when any metric crosses an operator-defined threshold, such as a queue exceeding a set length. The SHIFT platform, recognized with the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award, delivers these outputs as live dashboards, scheduled reports, and API feeds for integration into existing airport operations systems. Outsight applies this capability across major hub deployments, including Dallas Fort Worth and Paris-Charles de Gaulle, where the platform tracks passenger and vehicle movement through a real-time, anonymous 3D environment built from infrastructure-mounted LiDAR sensors.

• Is LiDAR-based passenger tracking compliant with GDPR without additional configuration?

  LiDAR sensors measure surfaces using laser pulses and produce point clouds that encode position, shape, and motion. They cannot physically capture faces, skin tone, or license plates, so no personal data is ever recorded. GDPR compliance is therefore a structural property of the sensor physics rather than a software setting applied after capture. This distinguishes the approach from camera-based systems, where a separate anonymization step must be applied to footage that initially does contain identifiable imagery. Outsight's SHIFT platform is built on this principle: because its Motional Digital Twin is fed entirely by LiDAR, anonymity is guaranteed by definition at the hardware level, with no additional configuration required.

• How does LiDAR passenger tracking perform in airside areas with high ceilings and large open spaces?

  LiDAR sensors emit laser pulses that travel long distances before returning, giving each unit a large effective coverage footprint at typical terminal ceiling heights. In wide-open concourses, fewer sensors are needed per square meter compared to camera-based or stereo-vision systems, because each LiDAR unit contributes to a shared 3D point cloud covering the full volume of the space. Multiple sensors are fused into one scene, so a person crossing from one sensor's primary zone to another continues to carry the same anonymous tracking ID without interruption. Outsight's SHIFT platform applies this principle at the scale of major hub airports, including Dallas Fort Worth, the world's largest 3D LiDAR airport deployment, where infrastructure-mounted sensors maintain continuous tracking across large airside volumes without capturing any biometric data.

• What makes an airport technology award meaningful as a signal of vendor maturity versus a marketing exercise?

  Industry awards specific to aviation technology, such as those run by Airport Technology publications, typically evaluate vendors against criteria tied to deployment scale, operational outcomes, and integration breadth rather than product features alone. A vendor recognized across those criteria while its technology is already live in major international airports carries a different signal than an award based on product concept. Outsight's 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award, for instance, came while its SHIFT platform was actively deployed at airports including Dallas Fort Worth, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, and Rome Fiumicino, giving procurement teams a concrete operational baseline to assess. That combination of independent recognition and verifiable live deployments is what separates a meaningful maturity signal from a marketing exercise, and it serves as a useful filter alongside certifications like ISO 27001 and SOC 2.

• What is Shift, the Spatial Intelligence platform that won the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award?

  Shift is Outsight's Spatial Intelligence software platform, and it received the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award. Built on 3D LiDAR software, it transforms raw LiDAR data from a combination of different manufacturers into actionable insights. It analyzes the positions and movements of people, objects and vehicles with laser precision. For airports, this means detailed spatial analytics that support the management and monitoring of passenger flow and vehicle traffic across the site.

• What do the Airport Technology Excellence Awards recognize, and why was one awarded in 2024 for Shift?

  The Airport Technology Excellence Awards aim to celebrate the best and greatest achievements in the aviation industry. Outsight received the 2024 award for its Spatial Intelligence software platform, Shift. The award recognizes Outsight's role in pushing the boundaries of Spatial Intelligence and 3D perception technologies on the global stage. It also cements the company's position as a leading innovator in the Spatial Intelligence domain, with solutions deployed across four continents at the time.

• Which areas of an airport can the Shift platform monitor, from terminals to airside?

  Shift can be used on projects that require accurate and anonymous tracking of people in the terminals. It also tracks vehicles in curbside areas, in parking and airside. Outsight attributes this versatility to Shift's ability to integrate seamlessly with any LiDAR sensor and manufacturer. The platform transforms raw LiDAR data from a combination of different manufacturers into actionable insights, helping airports manage and monitor passenger flow and vehicle traffic.

• On how many continents was the technology deployed when the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award was received?

  When Outsight received the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award, its Spatial Intelligence solutions built on 3D LiDAR were deployed across four continents. The award recognized this global footprint as part of Outsight's role in pushing the boundaries of Spatial Intelligence and 3D perception worldwide. Raul Bravo, President Founder of Outsight, noted at the time that the technology was deployed at scale in major international airports, which he saw as a sign of LiDAR's maturity.

• How does the Shift platform follow a passenger's journey through an airport anonymously?

  Shift provides accurate localization and continuous tracking of the passenger journey in a fully anonymous manner. It works from 3D LiDAR data, analyzing the positions and movements of people, objects and vehicles with laser precision. Infrastructure operators such as airports are readily provided with dozens of KPIs for each specific zone of interest, along with immediate alarms and statistics. Outsight says this helps airports manage and monitor passenger flow and vehicle traffic.

• What did Raul Bravo say the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award means for LiDAR as a technology?

  Raul Bravo, President Founder of Outsight, expressed his enthusiasm for the award. The announcement states that the award signifies Outsight's achievements and leadership recognition and also marks the evolution of LiDAR into a mature technology. Bravo noted that LiDAR is now deployed at scale in major international airports. In his view, LiDAR has emerged as the third generation of people and vehicle monitoring technology, surpassing the adoption of the second generation, stereo-vision cameras, deployed over a decade ago.

• Why did the founder say airports lead in adopting new passenger monitoring technology?

  On receiving the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award, Raul Bravo, President Founder of Outsight, said that once again airports are at the forefront of technological advancement. He explained that airports adopt new technologies to drive more efficient operations, enhance passenger experiences and elevate safety standards. He made these remarks as Spatial Intelligence built on 3D LiDAR was being deployed at scale in major international airports. He framed LiDAR as the third generation of people and vehicle monitoring technology, with airports again leading its adoption.

• Can the Shift platform monitor vehicle traffic at airports as well as passenger flow?

  Yes. Shift analyzes the positions and movements of people, objects and vehicles with laser precision, using 3D LiDAR data from different manufacturers. At airports, this lets operators manage and monitor passenger flow inside terminals and vehicle traffic in curbside, parking and airside areas. Each zone of interest can be configured with its own KPIs, immediate alarms and statistics. These spatial analytics capabilities are what Outsight's 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award recognized.

• What position in Spatial Intelligence did the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award confirm?

  The 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award recognized Outsight's role in pushing the boundaries of Spatial Intelligence and 3D perception technologies on the global stage. It cemented Outsight's position as the leading innovator in the Spatial Intelligence domain. The recognition was based on Shift, Outsight's software platform that turns raw LiDAR data from multiple manufacturers into actionable insights. At the time, Outsight's solutions were deployed across four continents.

• Is LiDAR-based passenger tracking already deployed at scale in major international airports?

  Yes. When Outsight received the 2024 Airport Technology Excellence Award, Raul Bravo, President Founder of Outsight, stated that LiDAR is now deployed at scale in major international airports. He described it as the third generation of people and vehicle monitoring technology. Outsight's Shift platform supports these deployments by working with any LiDAR sensor and manufacturer. It provides airports with anonymous tracking, dozens of KPIs per zone of interest, and immediate alarms and statistics.