If you remember the days when you first used an ATM, or for the more appropriate example, an airline check-in kiosk, there was a little bit of a learning curve before you got used to it. Hopefully, there wasn't a long line behind you as you navigated your way through a touch-screen-enabled series of questions to get your boarding pass. Today, it's almost as mundane a task as flipping on a light switch but will advances in technology turn off the light over personalized airline service?

It has often been said that airline travel has gone the way of mass transit – crowded, inflexible, and impersonal. It's no surprise that the same thoughts run through the minds of travelers when faced with the possibility that soon they may be boarding themselves on their next flight. No more welcoming smiles (or should we say, facial expressions for better or worse); glances at the number of carry-ons you have; multi-tasked agents pulling boarding passes with one hand while making announcements with the other; or feeling relief over having just passed the ultimate red rope of airline approval – the boarding gate. In the not-too-distant future, the "swish" of a gate opening or maybe a disturbing alarm announcing your attempt to board out of sequence or even the wrong flight may be all that you hear when boarding a flight.

Continental Airlines has announced plans to test the concept of self-boarding at one gate in its Houston hub. On its Web site, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) describes the process of self-boarding as providing automated boarding gates for passengers, like in a train or metro station, reducing boarding lines. Lufthansa currently offers its "Quick Boarding" machines at selected gates in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin-Tegel, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen, and USA Today reports that 13 other airlines, including Air France, Korean Air, Japan Airlines and Air New Zealand, are currently using agent-less boarding, particularly on domestic flights. However, the concerns remain the same no matter who introduces the technology. Is it secure? Is it designed to eliminate staff? Lufthansa claims that its self-boarding process frees up its staff to provide more customer service, not less, leaving the robotic task of scanning a boarding pass to a machine. Skeptics of the widespread use of self-boarding raise security concerns, issues which Continental is testing with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The general consensus among proponents of self-boarding is that, since passengers and hand luggage are already screened by the time they reach the boarding gate, the automated boarding process should not raise security concerns.

While less interaction with agents is favored by some passengers, others feel that flying has become increasingly void of human interaction in a business that prides itself on being a service industry. Maybe it just depends on what your definition of service is. For its part, Lufthansa maintains staff to answer questions, assist with problems or process passengers who do not wish to use the self-boarding gates. Then again, in most cases, won't boarding be only as quick as the slowest person with the biggest carry-on?

Have you used any self-boarding gates? What are your thoughts on agent-less boarding?