AN AIRLINE pilot asks air traffic control for permission to make an emergency landing. 鈥淥ne of our passenger seats says its occupant is a shifty character who might be a nervous terrorist,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e want him off this flight.鈥�
Scoff if you like, but intelligent airline seats might become a reality if work by a British lab pans out. Qinetiq, the UK鈥檚 part-privatised defence lab, is moving into civil aviation. Engineers at the lab鈥檚 Multifunctional Materials Group in Farnborough, Hampshire, are designing a new generation of seats that could help busy cabin crew judge whether a passenger is a terrorist or potential air-rager, or if they have been sitting still so long they risk developing deep vein thrombosis.
The seats will contain a thicket of pressure sensors that will relay signals to a central computer to assess the seat occupant鈥檚 behaviour. Are they asleep? Motionless for too long? Jumpy? Qinetiq designer Chris Thorpe says the system could have a display that is only accessible to the cabin crew 鈥� perhaps in the galley 鈥� to warn if a passenger鈥檚 behaviour is out of the ordinary.
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If they have been asleep or sitting still too long, say, a 鈥淒VT Warning鈥� might flash beneath the passenger鈥檚 seat number, and a crew member could prompt the passenger to take a walk around the plane. And if the seat reveals the passenger may be in a state of high anxiety, the display can discreetly alert the cabin crew. They can then assess whether the passenger presents a risk: are they simply frightened of flying? An air-rager in the making? Or a hijacker about to make their move? Thorpe says additional sensors and analytical software may one day help the crew to make that judgement, perhaps by monitoring passengers鈥� temperature or skin moisture levels. Qinetiq is 鈥渂ack-validating its technology against real cases鈥� in a bid to assess the feasibility of this, Thorpe says.
The sensing seats are part of a bigger project to make airline cabins more friendly, with lighting that dims when you fall asleep, for instance. It is expected to bear fruit in about a year, but unless you鈥檙e used to turning left when you board a plane, don鈥檛 expect to see it soon: first-class passengers will enjoy the benefits first.