Airbus is testing a plane that can track everything you do on it, including bathroom trips

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Airbus is trialing an Internet of Things (IoT) platform on its A350-900 test plane, and if all goes well, your flights will never be the same. The system connects to almost every non-flight onboard system, including the seats, overhead bins, meal trolleys, and yes, the lavatories.

Never again will you have to perp walk down the aisle, only to find three people already queuing up for the tiniest seat on the plane.

Airbus wants to bring the Internet of Things to the friendly skies

Okay, maybe this will become the unfriendly skies soon enough. I mean, IoT is pretty terrible on land, with lousy security, network-fouling settings and a whole host of other bad things that really shouldn’t be within a country mile of any aircraft.

Airbus does say that the system is tuned for efficiency, like overhead bins that let passengers know where there is still space, occupied bathrooms, or open seats. It will be a blessing for flight crew members because it will let them know of even more things going on. And it gives them another tool to personalize service for each passenger. Here’s what we know.

• The Airbus Connected Experience system will upload data to a new “Skywise” cloud platform, for airline companies to run analytics on every single thing onboard
• Airbus hopes to roll out the tech into its fleet starting in 2021
• Everything from meal trolleys, seats, storage and the bathrooms will feed into the system

It’s still terrible. Airbus is trialing an iSeat made by Recaro, which features sensors in the armrest, backrest, and tray table. I can understand the backrest, and the tray table is probably going to be used to ensure they’re all stowed on takeoff/landing, but the armrests? Hmm.

Then again, that’s not even the worst part, as they’re also trialing cameras outside the bathrooms to measure wait time. I can’t see how this will change anything, and it’s not like they’re going to build more bathrooms into future designs. Who knows.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.