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New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

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Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you mean by "recognize faces". It has to recognize that it's seeing a face and eyes, but it doesn't need to recognize that the face belongs to John Smith, Frequent Flyer #0123456789

What exactly is the privacy risk there? The airline already knows who is sitting in the seat, and also their ff#

"Top 20 politicians from looking stupid in long-haul flights".

How do they know which party that would be? Facial recognition, obviously.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#162
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bunk bed concept often surfaces but see https://travel.stackexchange.com/q/21713/4188

Given the huge improvements in air travel safety over the past few decades, it probably makes sense to relax evacuation and seatbelt requirements a little bit in order to enable experimentation with bunks and other non-standard layouts.

I still think there's the issue with business - and first class travelers, which pay top $ to lie flat on long haul flights and are main revenue source of most airlines.

Offering a cheap (or at least significantly cheaper) option to lie flat would eat into their own revenue.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's your main issue, you're very lucky... I wish I could worry about my posterior, but the constant pressure on the knees by the seat in front and the desperate search for a position where my legs will fit keep all my attention. Sleeping is a pipe dream, of course. When I see headlines like this I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Airlines need a seat pitch regulation. (and before anyone mentions that I could…

I've always found the knees hitting the seat thing an amazing variation of human anatomy. My wife is 6' tall with long legs and will have 3 or more inches to spare on leg room, while I know people shorter than 5'10" who constantly complain about their knees hitting the seat in front of them. It does seem like truly exceptionally tall people would have a reasonable disability accommodation claim to be put in premium e…

If you're of moderate height but have a fat backside that must push you forward into the seat in front.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#164

I've tried leaning my head against the window frame, but was worried that the vibration would scramble my brains while I slept. All the seats need is wings for the headrest so I don't wake up as my head falls the instant I go to sleep.

> I've tried leaning my head against the window frame, but was worried that the vibration would scramble my brains while I slept

Hah, yeah, I've tried this too, but the vibrations make my nose and the inside of my ears tickle like hell!

> All the seats need is wings for the headrest so I don't wake up as my head falls the instant I go to sleep

Hmm, so, I've sat in seats that have had small "wings" at the side before, but the seats were still so upright that my head would still fall - what's needed is "wings", and a slight recline.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whay's the point of video calling someone in the same room a few meters away?

When my house was built, I considered adding a wired intercom system. I could never think of a reason why it would be better than just yelling.

Many DECT phones have this functionality without being wired. Also there probably is a way to use SIP locally as an intercom between smartphones.

Unlike an intercom they're portable.

The main thing missing is voice or sound activated pick-up and hang-up, sometimes automatic loudspeaker mode.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#166
post #128

I always lean forward on the tray table. I find resting my head / getting it horizontal is far more important than anything for the rest of my body. Is this just me? I get the sense that very little is optimized for this. The next person reclining their seat makes it harder to fit my head on the tray table, for example. Conflicting resting positions!

I do the same thing, but eventually it becomes uncomfortable on my folded arms and they fall asleep. Or the person in front of me leans back and crushes my head...

What if there was a cushion on the back of the seat in front of you? Something that you can rest your head on at an angle. I’ve though about this and although I haven’t tried it I feel like that’ll be more comfortable for me.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#167
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once worked with someone who was perviously a consultant to a large airline and they dropped the size of their inflight magazine ~20 years ago to save weight and then were amongst the first airlines to drop it all together for the same reason They figured out the $ they would save p.a with every change of page length, paper weight, etc. (it was partially offset by advertisers and onboard sales but not enough) I can…

There are listicles with these kinds of stats every now and then (and I’m usually a sucker for them), like this one: https://www.traveller.com.au/airline-weight-reduction-to-sav... Scaling any kind of issue changes things dramatically.

thanks, appreciated this article more than the parent.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#168
post #95
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bunk bed concept often surfaces but see https://travel.stackexchange.com/q/21713/4188

Yeah I know... I have impractical ideas about air travel. My other idea was to take the second level of a 747 and convert it to a gym. Instead of seats you’d have treadmills and at the far end would be showers. Anyone could “book” time in the gym for a fee. Imagine being able to go for a run on a 18 hour transpacific flight? Of course all this gets mooted by the starship... once we can get la to Singapore in 20 minut…

I don't get why you're downvoted. I think it's a creative idea. But I don't think it will fly (pun intended).

Real estate (as in space) on a plane is probably the most expensive in the world. While airlines reserve space for (for example) a bar in business class (and to the best of my knowledge only in the A380) a gym would use too much space.

There's also the issue with turbulence to consider, which would make a gym (at least without significant adaptions to the machines) rather impractical.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the bottom line is that people aren't, on average, actually willing to pay higher prices for flying with more room. So you could just as easily replace "- Mr Airline" with "- Everyone Involved"

I upgraded to premium economy for $80 and the two friends I was traveling with gave me shit about it at both ends of the flight. All three of us were highly paid at the time. "That's over 10%!" exclaimed one (flights were ~$700). Uh, ok? I'm gonna physically and mentally torture myself for five ours over $80? I'm sure there's a fascinating behavioral evolution story behind this and I'd love to know what it is. It fee…

Which route has premium economy for only 10% more?

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't recognizing your specific face, it's about watching your general expressions. Many modern cars already have something like this to see if you're falling sleeping while behind the wheel and will start vibrating the seats and steering while sounding alarms to get you alert again. That being said, it's definitely over engineered compared to a "are you still active" button on the screen.

You are ignoring the argument. You are in fact building the strawman for an excuse to point cameras at everyone for the duration of the flight.

Don't worry, the algorithm only checks if you're asleep. By algorithm I mean outsourced workers in 3rd world call center, that is until our actual algorithm starts producing better results.
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