Brain Waves: Social robots, in-room wine pourers, and more…

Explore gets emotional to help customers choose the right holiday

Adventure travel company Explore is using emotion-tracking software to help customers choose their perfect trip. The bespoke software tracks people’s emotional reactions to visual stimuli. It then interprets the electrical activity within the brain to work out when the subject is finding something pleasurable.  Explore says it wants to put the “the fun back into planning a holiday”.

“Social robot” makes friends at Silicon Valley airport

Guests at San Jose International Airport, the gateway to Silicon Valley, are now able to interact with a “humanoid social robot”. A first for the US, the new iPal Playground area features iPal, a robot employed to play with, entertain and educate travellers. The playground includes a maze, an interactive area where visitors can sing, dance and talk with iPal, and educational apps.

New hotel room gadget serves wine by the glass

A new device has been developed that automatically preserves, chills and serves wine by the glass in hotel rooms. Created by Plum, the gadget allows hoteliers to serve in-room wine by the glass, rather than relying on miniature bottles. With each glass poured, Plum automatically tracks the sale, bills the guest’s folio and notifies housekeeping when it is time to replace an empty bottle.

Lufthansa provides IFE content before take-off

Lufthansa has launched a new service that allows passengers to select their in-flight entertainment content prior to take-off. The new “Lufthansa Companion App”, which can be downloaded for free, provides the IFE content six weeks in advance, so passengers can select their favoured content as a playlist. There is also the option for passengers to use the own mobile device as a second screen.