The Future of the digEplayer Is...Virtual Reality (VR)?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: Seattle
Posts: 6
The Future of the digEplayer Is...Virtual Reality (VR)?
Today on AS12 on way to Boston there was a film and camera crew on board with passengers testing and posing with new VR sets that will apparently replace the beloved, and perhaps hated, digiplayers. Congrats Alaska for making the great leap forward, if it indeed happens.
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,501
I wear glasses and in my experience with VR headsets, they tend not to work all that well with them. (I have a pretty strong prescription and the diopter correction dials unfortunately don't go far enough.) Hopefully whatever devices they're using will work better?
#5
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AS MVPG, HH Diamond
Posts: 232
Fascinating. I'll be very interested to see if this is more than a pilot project. I also have all sorts of questions ranging from whether they'll find a way to pipe in-flight announcements in, since situational awareness when using VR is by design just about nil, to how they'll design a simple enough user interface to be able to be easily used. Thanks for the report!
#6
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: SEA
Programs: AS MVPG, Bonvoy Titanium, NEXUS
Posts: 174
#7
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Pacific Wonderland
Programs: ʙᴏɴᴠo̱ʏ Au, IHG Au, HH Dia, Nexus, Pilot FlyingJ Preferred
Posts: 5,336
Alaska blog post on this
https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/vr-trial/
Ten flight trial starting yesterday on BOS-SEA and BOS-SAN.
https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/vr-trial/
Ten flight trial starting yesterday on BOS-SEA and BOS-SAN.
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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Fascinating. I'll be very interested to see if this is more than a pilot project. I also have all sorts of questions ranging from whether they'll find a way to pipe in-flight announcements in, since situational awareness when using VR is by design just about nil, to how they'll design a simple enough user interface to be able to be easily used. Thanks for the report!
#10
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: Southwest A-List; Alaska MVPG; Hilton Diamond; Avis PreferredPlus; Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite
Posts: 914
Can they livestream footage from a 360 camera mounted on the nose of the aircraft? It would be like flying in a glass airplane!!
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Its the brand of tablet that can be rented on longer Alaska flights.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...ainment/tablet
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...ainment/tablet
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: PDX
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At first I had to think really hard what "VR" was.....then I finally figured it out.....while this ranks pretty high on the "cool scale".....I'm not sure I want to completely be unaware of my surroundings on an aircraft....especially if, for example, there is an emergency or I want to watch a movie while eating my meal.
#14
Moderator: Alaska Mileage Plan
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,307
Its the brand of tablet that can be rented on longer Alaska flights.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...ainment/tablet
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...ainment/tablet
Last edited by dayone; Sep 24, 2018 at 7:42 pm Reason: Typo.
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Location: Pacific Northwest
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Posts: 16,801
At first I had to think really hard what "VR" was.....then I finally figured it out.....while this ranks pretty high on the "cool scale".....I'm not sure I want to completely be unaware of my surroundings on an aircraft....especially if, for example, there is an emergency or I want to watch a movie while eating my meal.
Soylent!
j/k