New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by flurdy » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:48 AM UTC

mFixman wrote: post #157

xvector wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually a serious problem to me. Regardless of how interesting I find them, meetings at work trigger something deep inside me that cause me to sleep. It’s like a biological switch has been flipped. Cavemen talking around a fire into the night, getting ready for the long rest for the day ahead... Sometimes I fall into a fugue in which I am semi-aware and a dream fills in part of the speech of meetings. I hear…

I thought I was the only person with a serious case of useless-meeting narcolepsy. Keeping relatively active helps, just like taking walks roughly every hour at minimum during work. If I'm absolutely going to sleep I'll stop paying attention and focus on my work, but then I'll miss opportunities to talk when needed. I'll owe my career to anyone who can find a solution.

Ditto.

Hate meetings as I know I will be doing all the tricks to stay awake. Pinching my legs, rotating feet, shifting about, hoping my drink lasts...

Which is why I hate meetings that are longer than 15 minutes. Hardly any need to be any longer. If they do then they are workshops, not meetings.

I get quite frustrated and often walk out before they finish as often a possible solution and plan has been decided on quite quickly, then people realise they got another 45 minutes to go of the booked meeting so might as well discuss another subject or worse: guessing hypothetical responses to what might happen after the meeting.

No, let's just quickly do what we just all decided was the best plan. If that doesn't work, let's talk again. Most of the time it will work and we saved a lot of wasted time. And frustrations.

I don't actually hate meetings. I just hate long meetings. 1 hour is a long meeting.

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

#182

Post by glangdale » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:48 AM UTC

greglindahl wrote: post #84

oceliker wrote: post #39

> The designers are considering adding facial recognition technology to the design. Um, what > In fitting with the trend towards more personalized, data-driven flying experiences, New Territory is keen to add facial recognition technology to the mix too. > The idea is that as the seat wing recognizes that you've fallen asleep, it'll automatically turn off the movie playing on your IFE. This could be the worst idea ev…

As someone who doesn't sleep much on planes, the benefit of turning off all of the video that my sleeping neighbors are playing is significant.

+1 to this. I don't love trying to sleep on planes at the best of times, but when you're surrounded by people who have happily fallen asleep in front of some bright flashing screen it drives me out of my mind. Flight attendants will usually switch them off if you ask, though.

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

#183

Post by einpoklum » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:51 AM UTC

jobigoud wrote: post #116

epse wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is for video calls. Depending on your class, you can video call the flight attendants

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

On an A380, they could be on a different floor and 200 meters away...

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

#184

Post by WalterBright » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:53 AM UTC

Roark66 wrote: post #176

WalterBright wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my senior year at Caltech, I flew out with some others to interview at HP. HP made a group presentation to us. I fell asleep halfway through the presentation and woke up halfway to the floor, and hit the floor with quite a crash. I inspired quite a bit of laughter with that. I didn't get the job offer :-)

This is why you always bring a coffee to presentations/meetings. Even if caffeine is not strong enough to stop you from falling asleep the activity of picking up a cup and taking a sip every few minutes will do.

I didn't get hooked on coffee until I started at Boeing. There's nothing like Boeing MIL-STD coffee. It was years before I realized that my Sunday morning headaches were caffeine withdrawal (I'm really not very smart).

I still like my coffee black and tasting like industrial waste.

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

#185

Post by dspillett » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 9:54 AM UTC

xvector wrote: post #144

ddsea wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boring meetings have the same effect on me. The main challenge is, not to snore.

This is actually a serious problem to me. Regardless of how interesting I find them, meetings at work trigger something deep inside me that cause me to sleep. It’s like a biological switch has been flipped. Cavemen talking around a fire into the night, getting ready for the long rest for the day ahead... Sometimes I fall into a fugue in which I am semi-aware and a dream fills in part of the speech of meetings. I hear…

> meetings at work trigger something deep inside me that cause me to sleep

I get this, though I know that it is in part because I don't get enough good sleep often (due to a mix of insomnia & bad sleep as symptoms of being a bit bi-polar, and life just being too darn busy) even at times when I am feeling well rested & wide awake it still happens.

A meeting room full of people, even the big "board room", tends to be warmer and cosier than our usual open-plan office which is definitely part of what causes the effect.

Also, the start of a meeting that I'm not running is a point where the brain shuts off a bit: I'm no longer concentrating on my work but there is nothing else to take my attention while waiting for others to file-/dial-in or the chair to get things started. Normally when I down tools it is to do something else, for instance my lunch-time march in the fresh air, rather than to just sit and stop for a moment in a warm room. Of course there is "networking" going on rather than it being completely dead time, but that isn't the same as concentrating on a work task or physically doing something.

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

#186

Post by rsp1984 » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:03 AM UTC

On long distance flights I always use the following hack in economy: I take the armrest separating me from my neighbor and tilt it almost fully up, so it forms about a 15 deg angle with the seat back. Now it's a headrest! Then I take the pillow, fold it and stick it in between the armrest and my head so I can lean comfortably.

Of course this requires kindly asking for permission from the seat neighbor. But most don't really care about the armrest as it doesn't provide enough space for two arms anyway.

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

#187

Post by culturestate » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:07 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #179

culturestate wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a call button, the flight attendant has to come over twice - once to find out what you want, and then again to bring you the thing you asked for. Any form of remote communication (video chat, text message, whatever) reduces that to a single interaction. Fewer trips down the aisle, less time spent leaning over other passengers, etc. If I were the PM on this project I probably would've used a standard menu of ser…

A button to get peanuts ...

> A button to get peanuts ...

Or a blanket, or a gin tonic, or a cup of noodles between meal services on a 16-hour flight from Hong Kong to New York...

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

#188

Post by ak39 » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:15 AM UTC

dgemm wrote: post #87

oceliker wrote: post #39

> The designers are considering adding facial recognition technology to the design. Um, what > In fitting with the trend towards more personalized, data-driven flying experiences, New Territory is keen to add facial recognition technology to the mix too. > The idea is that as the seat wing recognizes that you've fallen asleep, it'll automatically turn off the movie playing on your IFE. This could be the worst idea ev…

Two years ago they would have been finding a way to add blockchain.

Two years already?! Even the hype cycles have to adjust their x-axis.

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

#189

Post by CalRobert » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:16 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #125

jobigoud wrote: post #116

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.

So you can communicate without waking up your sleeping infant, turns out. Though phones work for this too.

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

#190

Post by simonh » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 10:16 AM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #137

stedaniels wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Clarification of the difference between recognition and general detection is not an argument for or against, though perhaps you should re-read my last sentence for my position.

Your post is making the mistake that, just because all this function needs is detection, that therefore this is the only thing it's actually doing. "What this is about is..."

This isn't about detection and isn't about triggering a sleep mode at all. It's not even about over-engineering for this particular function, because this particular function is not the point. What it's actually about is doing everything they can conceivably think of to monetize engagement tracking, while continuously pointing a camera at your face as you watch movies and adds.