Virtual Reality Helmets On Planes: Airbus Patent Filing Reveals Details

This past summer, we saw a patent filing surface from Airbus for standing seats in planes. Though many expressed less-than-enthusiastic opinions about that prospect, the latest patent filing by the aircraft maker is likely to have a more positive response: virtual reality helmets for passengers.

The patent was spotted by the folks over at Ubergizmo, with the filing detailed on the USPTO's website showing, among other things, a somewhat crude illustration of aircraft passengers with virtual reality helmets on.

These helmets would primarily serve to isolate passengers from each other and the sounds, sights, and even smells that result from such cramped spaces. The helmets, the patent filing suggests, could provide things like scents the user would find more pleasant than plane odor.

The helmets would, it appears, be fixed to the seat's head rest, able to be flipped forward onto one's head if desired. Some unspecified system could then provide a sensory-isolating virtual reality experience. The illustrations show goggles and ear pieces, for example.

There's are mentions in the filing of different possibilities, such as the helmet portion of the seat being a removable unit that could be quickly installed if the passenger pays for it. Whether Airbus has any actual plans for implementing this technology is unknown at this time.

SOURCE: Ubergizmo