Air New Zealand May Use Augmented Reality to Remember Your Next Meal

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Air New Zealand is looking to up their customer service game with an interesting new piece of technology. The carrier has paired with Microsoft to introduce the computer company's HoloLens AR headset into flight attendants' uniforms. The headset, which looks like a large set of sunglasses which extra headgear, could relay information to the attendant like your favorite drink, favorite meal, the last time you ate or drank and even your mood. The headset can also display information like when your last flight was, where you're headed and your loyalty status.

While this is ostensibly meant to make the flying process a bit friendlier — which, with all of the outrages recently committed by airlines isn't such a bad thing — it's not entirely clear how a virtual reality headset can read a human mood better than an actual...human. Not to mention, as someone who gets fairly stressed on flights and likes to have a glass of wine or two, I'm not sure I'd love for my flight attendant to see the timing of my last drink — or meal for that matter.

This project is currently in beta testing, so there's time to work out kinks in the system. And as someone who finds herself in coach more often than business (meaning: always), my drink and meal preference won't mean much. While travelers may have some reservations about the amount of information this technology could give another person in the literal blink of an eye, I can't say I wouldn't be amused seeing a flight attendant in goofy goggles "air tapping" around the cabin. So at least there's that.

H/T: Mashable