The Flight Experience (Problem Statement) - The flight experience, at first can be enthralling, with all the different sights, sounds, experiences, etc. However, for the frequent flyer, this is a routine that becomes boring after a while. People tend to spend their flight duration either reading, or sleeping, or engaging in productive work. Modes of travelling that have a longer duration tend to have different experience altogether. People talk to each other; they share, they bond. The motive is to bring that inter-personal interaction within the parameters of air travel. Even on a 3 hour flight, there's immense potential to engage in an interesting conversation with someone. This could be used not only to while away time, but to also expand/widen one's professional network. The objective is to enrich one's flight experience by fostering interaction between people on the flight.
Reading mode allows you to access the tablet library, comprising airline magazines, local and national newspapers, and a series of books.
Purchasing Merchandise
Looking outside the window
Gaming
Listening to Music
The music library comprises selected top of the chart albums, as well as recorded radio shows. The passenger is provided with headphones.
Game library stores a lot of flight related games as well as basic mind games for children. passengers can compete against one another in most games. the scoreboard shows the list of scores scored by the passengers.
Talking to other people
Reading
Visiting the Washroom
The movie library comprises both hindi and english movies, documentaries and serials. the passenger is provided with headphones too.
Watching a Movie Working
Eating/Drinking
Sleeping
Summoning flight attendant
The Solution - An Interactive Tablet mounted on the back of the preceeding seat that attempts at enhancing each passenger’s experience by allowing to undertake multiple activities, like reading, watching a movie, etc. The tablet also encourages passenger to passenger conversations by hosting a small within-the-plane chatroom; as well as passenger to air-personnel information exchange. The device therefore not only acts as an entertainment system, but also as a means of expanding ones social circle as well as getting relevant information across to concerned people.
The tablet hosts a digitized version of the menu of refreshments, both food and drinks. The passenger can not order through the tablet, but can get a clear idea of the food item through the app, and can summon the air hostess if he or she wants to order anything.
The Main menu (left) is accessible only after the passenger enters their name and profession, along with an optional description. The system verifies the identity by checking the list of passengers on the flight. The menu is divided into three segments; Media, or self entertainment, services, where he/she can access flight services, and interact, where he/she can see who else is on the same flight with him/her. ‘media’ and ‘services’ simply aim at digitizing existing flight experiences, whereas ‘Interact’ tries to bring like-minded people together, something that isn’t a trend on flights. The home button at the bottom simply brings people back to the default menu screen.
Above is the main menu for the interact option. it comprises 6 parts. the first is a seat chart to the left. it serves as an indication further on, when browsing through passenger profiles. the notifications tab on the top left lets you know when you’ve either sent a conversation request to a person, or received a request from someone. Before accessing this menu, the passenger is notified that by accessing the interact panel, his or her name, profession, and description will be visible to all. they can either hide their name and description, by selecting ‘name privacy’, or log out. when they log out, no one will be able to view their profile, or send them requests.
Just like the food menu, the passenger can access the merchandise menu too. They can get a proper view and description of the merchandise. But once again, they must summon the air hostess if they want to make a purchase.
The view profile panel allows you to view single profiles based on either seat number, or filter by professions. the seat chart on the side plots the selections. one can only select and view a single profile at a time. they can either move further, or go back to the main interact menu.
The passenger can access the pilot’s news feed here. all messages sent by the pilot to the passengers can be viewed here. Additionally, they can also track their journey in real time, as well as summon the air staff.
The profile panel gives the viewer details about the person. these are basically, their name, their profession, and a description. If they want to hide their name and description, they can, from the main interact menu. They can, after viewing the profile, send a conversation request, which sends an indication to the other person, that the sender (along with name and profession) wants to converse with you. there is also a note at the bottom of the profile, warning users that overuse or abuse of the send request button will give the flight attendant rights to revoke their access to the tablet, after one prior warning.
The edit description gives you a chance to edit the description you gave earlier, or to enter a new description, if you haven’t already. The name, and profession boxes, however, get locked, so once you have your name and profession entered, you can’t edit or change them.