Commercial air travel is a hugely excruciating experience for many people, and aviation companies keep coming up with some weird ideas to make it more comfortable. These could soon be added to reading passengers’ emotions and offering them transcranial stimulation therapy.
Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer applied for a patent for a “feel-good brain stimulation system” in 2016, which was accepted last year. Embraer’s patent envisions a complex system that includes:
- A digital camera that scans the face of a passenger in the seat and provides an image of the facial expression.
- A facial expression analysis tool that can identify the passenger’s emotions.
- An interface that then gives distressed passengers some form of stimulation, potentially including electrical-based direct current stimulation, magnetic stimulation, and pulsed ultrasound.
As you can tell from all this, your airplane seat can read your face, tell if you’re worried, and (if you want to) send an electrical or magnetic signal to theoretically calm you down.
Transcranial magnetic or current stimulation is an accepted treatment for depression and a potential option for several other mental health problems. In fact, there are already devices that provide this for home use. An airline providing this based on facial analysis can raise numerous privacy and personal data security issues. However, it is a fact that it can be interesting.
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