British Airways is trialling an in-flight sensor blanket called the “Happiness Blanket” to determine what makes first class passengers happy.
The blanket comes with a coronet that allegedly determines your mood through EEG sensing, and transmits this to the blanket’s woven fiber optics, which glow red/blue based on your state of mind. BA has determined that sleeping is relaxing, as is eating a big meal or drinking booze. SCIENCE!
As Consumerist points out, it’s telling that they didn’t bother to give this to their coach passengers, who doubtless would have painted the cabin walls with hellish ruby light from sorrow and pain.
I have a little kit I call “Most comfortable man in the sky,” which includes a very small sleeping bag that’s down on one side and silk on the other and compresses to the size of a large submarine sandwich (it’s one of these), a pair of comfortable pyjamas, a buckwheat eye-mask, a hot water bottle, and a pair of fuzzy sock-slippers. I change as soon as I get on the plane and try to go straight to sleep. If I could, I’d take a general anaesthetic for the duration of the flight.
British Airways Creates a ‘Happiness Blanket’ to Help First-Class Fliers Sleep Better [Justin Bachman/Businessweek]