What if a flight attendant received an alert as your seat emerged from sleep mode, prompting a timely breakfast service? Or if an empty glass was detected, triggering a refill without needing to ring the call button? These are small wins in the passenger experience world, small bits of friction in a premium cabin. Removing them can convert a good on-board experience to a great one. They’re also examples of what Collins Aerospace believes it can deliver with its InteliSence platform.
We can identify objects, whether it’s a book or a laptop or electronic device, and the optimal seating environment is different for each of those activities. If you’re reading a book, you need a different lighting environment than if you’re on a tablet or on a phone or watching IFE, for example. We can automatically and in an optimal way modify the environment based on the actual situation.
– Brian St. Rock, Director, Advanced Technology & Laboratories, Collins Aerospace
Utilizing an array of cameras, sensors, edge-computed video analytics and deep-learning Artificial Intelligence, Collins’ InteliSence monitors interactions and collects information from objects within the seat environment. The system can recognize not only that there’s a meal being served, but it can tell if a glass is empty, if the passenger has finished eating, or even if something spills during the flight. All these are triggers that would be aggregated in a flight attendant companion app, helping identify passengers needing assistance rather than crew pacing the aisle.
Read more: When the IFE system can watch you back
From a maintenance perspective, Brian St. Rock, Director, Advanced Technology & Laboratories at Collins notes that any defect in the seat a human can detect visually should also be recognized by the system. “If there’s a defect or something that’s not sitting right, that’s not flat, that’s not in the right position, something’s bent or dented, then the system can can detect it and send automated triggers for maintenance.” But it is also more than that.
The cameras are a key part of the sensor package, but InteliSence also ties in to mechanical sensors, such as in the seat actuators. The same sensor that is alerting the crew a passenger is waking up because the seat is rising out of bed mode could also sense degradation in performance, anticipating an imminent failure of that component.
This is not the first time a supplier has suggested adding cameras to help deliver a better passenger experience. Panasonic Avionics launched a similar concept in 2017 and deployed thousands of these across many airlines. No one really uses that system live today, but every now and then it touches off a bit of a privacy debate.
Perhaps more relevant, but less intrusive, are the cabin cameras flying already in some premium cabins. JetBlue‘s A321LR has a camera pointed into Mint cabin, for example.
What data those cameras capture, as well as the processing and storage, bring myriad privacy issues into play. Collins very much considered those in putting together the on-board kit.
The good news for passenger privacy with this setup is that the system handles all the video processing on the aircraft, and the footage is immediately discarded. It never is stored, even on the edge compute node, nor is it transmitted to the ground. The bad news is that it still is predicated on an array of cameras (and other sensors) monitoring passengers throughout the flight. That may be a hard hurdle to overcome.
St. Rock also notes that the configuration is GDPR compliant, and also that it is envisioned as an opt-in service by default. “It is there to enhance the journey, if a user wants to take advantage of the service,” he explains. “And if not, there’s a number of ways that they can not opt in.”
Collins is not alone in its optimism around the InteliSence platform. It was honored as a Crystal Cabin Awards winner at the 2023 ceremony held in conjunction with Aircraft Interiors Expo 2023 in Hamburg this week.
More news from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2023
- Crystal Cabin Awards short list: 80+ designs that will change the way you fly
- Finalists for 2023 Crystal Cabin Awards represent the future of passenger comfort
- ThinKom, Kontron partner for multi-constellation, multi-orbit, multi-modem IFC terminal
- Stellar Blu secures Boeing line-fit agreement
- Seamless finalizes QoE metrics, certifies first partner
- Recaro introduces PL3810, next generation of premium economy
- Jazeera saves weight, increases cabin capacity with Expliseat TiSeat E2
- Hughes signs on as OneWeb partner, launches new IFC options for airlines
- Recaro’s Xtend option allows exit row legroom shrink
- Aurora single-aisle lie-flat business class seats unveiled by Collins Aerospace
- Air Canada plans more free Wi-Fi with regional jet upgrades
- Unum Two launches as forward-facing business class option
- Collins brings galley inserts online with low-cost retrofit option
- Airbus HBCplus Ku-band providers selected
- ThinKom Plus launches, with hybrid LEO/GEO offering
- Air4All, Delta Flight Products team for wheelchair seating on board
- Testing the next step for LEO-based IFC
- JAL plans boost for inflight Wi-Fi service
- Airspace coming to A220 family
- InteliSence aims to boost premium cabin service with seat monitoring, analysis
- Seeking understanding in the IFC world
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Ron says
Very interesting concept, wondering how the industry progressed from the controversy years ago about a camera in the seat.
Seth Miller says
I raised that question several times in my conversation with Collins executives. They all think it is a non-issue at this point. And they’re probably right, so long as consumers don’t think about it.