According to the BBC, this concept, which, however, has not yet been adopted by any airline, was developed by a Norwegian design firm that decided to adapt the aircraft cabin as much as possible to the individual needs of passengers. The SkyStue idea is based on advanced technological solutions that "remember" user preferences to make their journey as comfortable as possible. According to the developers, their goal was to give every first-class passenger the opportunity to feel at home through an individual approach to comfort issues ("stue" in Norwegian means "living room").
"Increased comfort is not just about more legroom and champagne in flight," emphasizes Einar Hareide, the author of the SkyStue concept. "We want the passenger to feel that their personal needs are being taken into account."
Thanks to dynamic lighting, the cabin illumination smoothly changes brightness, simulating the change of day and night. This function is designed to mitigate the effects of jet lag during long flights. Passengers can do without headphones: individual noise-canceling devices are built into the headrests of the seats. The seats themselves have a massage function. For comfortable sleep, the seat reclines into a bed measuring 220 by 70 cm. The partition separating pairs of seats in the center of the cabin can be lowered if traveling together. Everything is done in a restrained, discreet Norwegian style – no gold or leather.
But the main difference of the new concept from the usual first-class interiors with shower cabins and spacious bedrooms is that all your preferences are tracked and remembered. According to Hareide, SkyStue is based on the concept of the "Internet of Things" (equipping objects with built-in technologies that allow them to interact with each other and with the global network), which is increasingly being used in the design of hotel rooms, office spaces, cars, and homes.
Smart devices connected to the internet remember your individual settings for temperature, lighting level, list of favorite melodies, etc., to reproduce them in the future. This technology is already implemented in a number of devices, such as Nest. This is a smart thermostat that automatically maintains a set temperature in your home.
The idea of SkyStue is that upon arrival at the airport, even before boarding the plane, the passenger can set all individual settings using a smartphone app, and during the flight, if necessary, adjust the parameters using a personal touch keyboard next to the seat. Like other technologies that unobtrusively track user behavior, SkyStue "unobtrusively accumulates knowledge of your preferences to tailor the service exactly to you," says the developer's website.
For now, SkyStue remains just a concept of what the future of first-class flights could be if airlines show interest in this idea. One can have different attitudes towards the fact that the objects around us, constantly connected to the internet, remember our preferences. Some find this functionality frightening, while others find it convenient. Either way, designers and carriers are constantly striving to take into account and remember the smallest preferences of the most important clients, thanks to which our ideas about a comfortable flight are moving to a fundamentally new level.
"Perhaps the highest level of comfort is the feeling that you are a special customer, that your comfort is truly cared for," says Hareide.