Nothing calms PAX more than...

[HRM]

...knowing their pilot is stressed!

If Your Pilot Is Feeling Stressed, This Smart Textile Will Let You Know

We know traveling by airplane can be stressful for the average passenger, but how does your pilot handle the pressure?

Led by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) Professor Tilak Dias, NTU’s Advanced Textiles Research Group will dive into smart textile technology placed inside the cockpit and within the pilot’s uniform. The team aims to check pilots’ heart rate, fatigue, loss of attentiveness, perspiration, body temperature, and anxiety, among other conditions.

Health statistics will be monitored using an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor system, which will be embedded into the yarn of clothing and textiles. As the heart generates electrical activity, which propagates towards the skin, ECG sensors are ready to record. Even though the electrical waves are quite small, the ECG electrodes attached to the skin can reliably pick up the data.

“By using smart textiles, we’re able to provide new prognostic and diagnostic techniques for pilot monitoring in a completely non-intrusive way,” says Dias. “This will enable the collection of data which will indicate the psychological experiences a pilot goes through while navigating a plane, potentially through unknown situations.”

As part of the Active Simulator Cockpit Enhancement (ASCENT) project, NTU Senior Lecturer and Researcher William Hurley will join Dias’ team to expand the smart textile study.

“The data collected via the smart textiles technology will be invaluable for the training and development of pilots and help pave the way for new technologies to be integrated into the cockpit quicker,“ says Hurley. “By monitoring a pilot’s mental state while testing any new technologies in a simulator, a better understanding can be developed of how these technologies can be integrated into a cockpit.”

Additional goals under the ASCENT project include eye-tracking technology, a user-intuitive cockpit, and a more natural lighting system.

[thinwing]

I am reminded of the book 1984 when I read this

[wiguy]

 If stressed, a few beers after arrival may help wash the dust away.