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Inspiration
In 2015, research from the University of New South Wales highlighted significant gaps in the effectiveness of traditional pre-flight safety briefings. Their study revealed that immediately after viewing, individuals only recalled about 32% of the information from a standard briefing. Alarmingly, these recall rates dropped by an average of 4% within just two hours post-exposure, prompting us to question the efficacy of these traditional methods.
How many of you truly remember the safety procedures from your last flight? Can you imagine any cabin crew allowing you to actually try on the life jacket and air masks?
We envision that in the future, safety demonstrations could be conducted in an XR environment. Passengers could experience firsthand what to do in various in-flight emergencies, something not feasible in real life. This includes correctly fastening the life jacket, assuming the emergency landing position, and knowing exactly where the oxygen mask is located, thereby handling more critical situations. This application not only improves retention of safety protocols but also streamlines the boarding process.
What it does
By involving physical participation, the prototype helps passengers retain crucial safety information through firsthand experience. The submitted prototype simulates a pre-flight safety demo, allowing passengers to practice safety procedures with direct interaction.
Interactive learning significantly increases memory retention rates. Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience suggests that people generally remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, but up to 90% of what they do (Dale, E. (1969). Audiovisual Methods in Teaching (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston).
With mixed reality, users can know exactly from their seat where the life-saving equipment is located and identify the nearest escape route. This cannot be easily replaced by video instruction or flight attendant demonstrations. This also includes VR, which can be particularly useful if users decide to preview this before they board. The check-in process can be streamlined, reducing waiting time before takeoff.
How we built it
Utilizing the Meta Interaction SDK and passthrough technology, we designed an immersive MR experience to make flight safety briefings more engaging and memorable.
We used a combination of custom-made and prefabricated 3D models and animations created in Blender.
An AI voice guides users step-by-step. The script was prepared by ChatGPT, and we generated an uplifting tone of voice through ElevenLab, to humanize the instructions and provide positive feedback throughout the training.
Challenges we ran into
Current XR technology focuses on a first-person experience and demonstrates a wide range of applications. The biggest challenge for this project was the first-person view and wearing the life jacket on our virtual body.
The absence of a "body" in the camera rig and lack of haptic feedback on other body parts meant there was a lack of immersive feedback beyond the visual experience, increasing the difficulty of implementing this interaction.
We made the jacket eye-tracked, but it should ideally be body-tracked. However, this is currently not possible, or we have not yet found a way to overcome this issue. We hope to find a solution in the future, as we believe this would enhance the immersive experience and elevate it to the next level.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We believe we have validated that this concept is feasible and demonstrated its huge potential for adoption by major flight operators in the future. Ten weeks ago, before I joined the XR Bootcamp, I knew nothing about XR but had a strong interest in this field. It has been a steep learning curve, but I am delighted that I can build something from scratch and turn the idea into (mixed) reality.
With a background in UX design, we were able to apply key UX principles to this prototype. Thinking from the user’s perspective is crucial, helping us identify which features need to be included in the application.
What we learned
The Meta SDK offers many new and exciting features that elevate XR interaction to the next level. We managed to incorporate some of them into this prototype.
It is important to have good storytelling in an immersive environment, as the target audience might not be familiar with the technology, let alone XR. It is reassuring to have a humanized AI guide them through the process.
Introducing positive feedback, sound effects, and encouraging phrases helps motivate users to continue with the simulation.
What's next for Dear Passenger
We hope to develop the complete safety procedure and explore the rest of the Meta SDK. We aim to implement actions such as putting on the air mask, adopting the "brace brace" position, and previewing escape routes. This experience can be fun by engaging passengers with gamified interaction and feedback. A scoring system can effectively inform users how well they performed the training.
This prototype focuses on the safety aspect, but we envision an overall transformation of the boarding experience, including entertainment, check-in, and destination previews. We believe flight operators are also looking to improve these areas to attract loyal customers. This means we could expand what passengers can access on the plane, beyond the small monitor, magazine, and paper information card, which are rarely used.
A toggle between VR and MR could be very useful. This would enable users to conduct the training on the plane, at home, at the airport, or anywhere they choose before boarding the plane.
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