High tech in the air: Carriers test new gadgets

Mind games: The Valkee headsets used by Finnair are designed to combat jet lag.

By Mark Chesnut

In a sector as high-tech as the airline industry, it’s no surprise that there is always something new and exciting around the corner, whether it’s designed to entertain, make travelers more comfortable during flight or even to combat jet lag.

Finnair has been making news recently with its new bright light headset, a supposed first in the industry, which is designed to help passengers avoid the negative drag of jet lag. Created by a Finnish company called Valkee, the headset simulates the effects of daylight to alleviate “symptoms caused by changes in the circadian rhythm and by shortage of natural daylight,” according to the airline.

For now, Finnair is the only airline using the headsets — and only on a few of its very long flights. But travelers headed to other parts of the world can partake in some of the latest gadgetry as well. Passengers flying business class on ANA’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner, for example, can make use of 17-inch touch-panel LCD touch screens, a PC power source, USB port and iPod jack.

Indeed, the front of the cabin is where you’re most likely to experience the newest technology. “The business class that we have today throughout the industry is far better than first class was just a few years ago,” said Vern Alg, a Houston-based consultant who works with Reed Exhibitions on the Aircraft Interiors Expo, an annual showplace of new options for airlines. In the future, he predicted that we’ll be seeing more lie-flat seats, improved Internet connectivity and lavatories with touch-free fixtures.

And there may be even more excitement in the works. A pair of companies, Contour Aerospace and Factorydesign, have banded together to design a futuristic seat, imaginatively named Not For Wimps, which promises to give passengers an “intense and stimulating” in-flight gaming experience, with speakers incorporated into the seat and a monitor dangling in front of each passenger. So much for worrying whether there’s a decent inflight movie.

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Mark Chesnut is a freelance travel writer, editor and publisher of LatinFlyer.com, which focuses on travel to Latin America. His first inflight movie was a short-subject film about glass-blowing.

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