UK’s flagship carrier British Airways (BA) is developing an ingestible “wellness pill,” which would allow the airline to monitor passengers’ health information during flights.
The company has filed a patent application for a sensor that would be able to measure a number of indicators, including stomach acidity levels, body temperature, sleep phase and heart rate.
Collecting the data would allow the airline to assess the passenger’s “wellness levels” and adjust the services it offers accordingly – such as changing in-flight meals, managing sleep times and suggesting appropriate inflight entertainment.
“The sensor inputs provide information on the physiological state of the passenger and environmental conditions in the vicinity of the passenger,” the patent application states.
“A dynamic event schedule is then generated based on the retrieved data.
“What is desired is a system that facilitates greater efficiencies within the aircraft travel environment and enables improved control and personalisation of the passenger’s travel environment, in particular for enhanced passenger wellness and wellbeing when flying.”
The ingestible sensor, which is roughly the size of an almond, is estimated to pass through the body in one or two days.
It is similar to an ingestible sensor developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2015, which allows doctors to continuously monitor a hospital patient’s vital stats.
To view and read the BA patent application in full, click here for the Intellectual Property Office website.
