The airline has used the Happiness Blanket to better understand the mood of its passengers.
People react to the experience of flying in many different ways, and British Airways has started a live experiment through the use of wearable technology that helps them to better understand the way in which their passengers feel throughout their flights.
The entire experiment is conducted through the use of a smart product called the Happiness Blanket.
The Happiness Blanket is a new type of wearable technology that monitors the “happiness” of a user and then changes its color in order to reflect that mood. This is only one of the new in flight perks that are being added to the flights over this airline. At the moment, the blanket wearables are being used only on a flight between London and New York.
The wearable technology is a combination of headbands and a blanket that lights up.
The headband is designed to monitor the passenger’s brainwaves in order to understand the level of wellbeing experienced by that individual. It wirelessly transmits that result to the blanket via Bluetooth technology so that the LED light laced blanket can then light up in the appropriate color. When a passenger was feeling happy, then the blanket would light up in a blue color. When the feeling of wellbeing was low, it would light up in a red color.
What the research found was that when the passengers first came on board, there was a transition period in which they were settling in. At that point, there was a mixture of red and blue being transmitted through the blankets. That said, later on, as they were settled and enjoying food and drink, the mood changed considerably as the blankets turned primarily blue. Interestingly, there were considerable responses to the different types of film and entertainment, based on what the passenger liked, or simply what emotion a passenger was feeling as a result of what was being seen or heard – with a big difference from comedy to thriller, for example.
The researchers reported that the ability to sink into a “deep undisturbed sleep” generated a great deal of blue light from the blankets.
British Airways feels that this wearable technology has confirmed that the many changes that they have made – from the food to the lighting, and the entertainment – is having a positive impact on the minds and bodies of its passengers.