Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/422436
30 | www.travelweekly-asia.com 1. CONVENIENCE SITA Lab leads the way in wearable tech by providing boarding passes for Android watches. A simple alert via Android Wear technology will remind the passenger of their flight at the appropriate time and location. Because the boarding passes are delivered via API a simple mark up in the code, which takes less than two minutes, enables Google Now operation and allows smart watches to be a useful travel tool. SITA provides a selection of APIs for airlines and airports on its developer.aero platform including ones for beacons, baggage tracking and iTravel. Importantly, SITA says its boarding pass is fully compliant with international regulations, including the TSA, so can be used at airports across the world. A quick swipe reveals the boarding pass. A second swipe displays the barcode allowing the passenger to get through the airport checkpoints and board the plane. A buzz on the smart watch will also alert a passenger about a late gate change. 2. SECURITY No smart watch? When boarding an aircraft, airline agents wearing smart glasses will scan your boarding pass and passport simultaneously. Both documents will be held side by side while an app matches the two to ensure they belonged to the same person. 3. ON-TIME PERFORMANCE Your aircraft is delayed while a part is fixed? Don't fret. With smart glasses, a mechanic will be able to communicate directly with database systems and sensors to perform step-by-step replacement of parts, while having both hands to do the work. Airlines say this could speed up turnaround times and make maintenance work far easier and safer. 4. CUSTOMER SERVICE You have a query for the airline service desk. You want to upgrade or change your seat. Instead of focusing attention on the computer keyboard to access and enter information, an airline staff member will use smart glasses to focus more on the customer. Discussions in a foreign language could be made easier by real- time translations where smart glasses use voice recognition software to translate the customer's language into text on the glasses' display. 5. FINDING MISSING BAGS The team at SITA Lab says smart glasses can be used to scan bag tags to retrieve mislaid bag information from WorldTracer, the airline industry database for finding misplaced baggage, and then phone the owner of the bag. 6. FINDING MISSING PERSONS Virgin Atlantic is testing iBeacon with its Upper Class passengers at Heathrow. The low-powered Bluetooth transmitter can notify nearby iOS Apple devices of nearby services, discounts and updates on their flight boarding schedules. With beacons, airlines can provide passengers with indoor directions, walk times to gates, lounge access and alerts about boarding. SITA's Common-use Beacon 10 WAYS WeArABLe TeCHNOLOGY WILL CHANGe YOUr TrAVeL exPerIeNCe registry has been launched to give the industry a single point of contact for common-use beacons deployed at any airport around the world. With it, airports can control and share the meta data – the exact location including information on gates, terminals etc. - with airlines and other partners and allow passengers to receive accurate and relevant information. 7. AVOIDING BUG BITES Winner of this year's Google Global Impact Challenge initiative was London's Royal Botanic Gardens Kew's wearable device that can hear mosquitoes. The small gizmo can be attached to a wristband and aims to detect different types of mosquito so as to help prevent certain diseases. every species of mosquito has its own unique wing beat. Amazing. 8. EMBEDDED BIOTECH Carlson Wagonlit Travel says biotechnology and biometric identification will become commonplace and, increasingly, biological authentication will take the place of passwords and passports. Fast, long-range retinal and fingerprint scanners, along with vein- matching hand scanners, will start to take the place of photographic IDs. 9. INTELLIGENT WALLETS As banks, stores and transit become increasingly digital-friendly, payments – and wallets – will follow. Digital money transfers will become the norm. Carlson Wagonlit says scan, snap and tap-to-pay functions will be present for nearly all transactions, and smartphones, wristbands and other tech devices will become intelligent wallets. 10. OVERWEIGHT BAGS Daewoo Shipbuilding and engineering in South Korea last year tested robotic suits that give workers superhuman strength to handle heavy objects. In the tests, the suits made it easier for the workers to lift and carry 30-kilogram objects, although the researchers told the New Scientists magazine that the current target is to extend the lifting capacity to 100 kilograms. So no more moaning about overweight bags. Virgin Atlantic, the first airline to give Google Glasses a go AVIATION A buzz on the smart watch will also alert a passenger about a late gate change.