No more surly boarding agents in Orly, wary travelers! The Paris airport is experimenting with "virtual" boarding agents that materialize out of nowhere at a touch of a button (bonus: they never go on strike)

The images materialize seemingly out of thin air when a boarding agent — a real live human — presses a button to signal the start of boarding.

They are actually being rear-projected onto a human shaped silhouette made of plexiglass. Three actual airport boarding agents were filmed in a studio to create the illusion, which the airport hopes will be more eye-catching and easier for passengers to understand than traditional electronic display terminals.

"Bonjour! I invite you to go to your boarding gate. Paris Airports wishes you a bon voyage," the image appears to say, while the name of the destination flashes in front of him.

Now if only they can make those security checks more pleasant ... Link (Photo: Francois Mori)