Virgin Atlantic and Sony have inked a deal that will the airline adopting Sony’s SmartEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1, tablet, mobile phone and SmartWatch 3 to help its engineers maintain aircraft in an eight-week long trial, starting next week at Heathrow.
According to Sony, the smartglass will be used by airline engineers to stream real-time videos to technicians to speed up technical assistance and smartwatch, on the other hand, will provide engineers with notifications and technical details, including instant feedback if they have a query.
Sony claims that use of smartglasses will eliminate use of paper from some engineering processes and will ensure engineers remain on the craft while working, potentially expediting turnaround time.
Announcing the partnership deal, Phil Maher, director of operations at Virgin Atlantic, said “We’re delighted to be partnering with Sony to trial wearable technology with our engineering team.”
“We are proud of our recent innovation work to provide the best possible experience for our customer-facing roles, and we’re pleased to be exploring how new technology can contribute towards our essential operations procedures.
“It’s a great way to empower our people by providing instant access to the information they need to be more effective in their roles.”
Sony said that it is keen to see its technology being tested and trialed by such an established organization, and that it is looking forward to seeing how it performs.
