UK-based budget accommodation chain Travelodge recently commissioned futurologist Ian Pearson to predict what guests would be likely experience in hotel rooms in 2030.
The six-month study looked at what the impact of technology will have on the average hotel stay and what type of facilities might might be available in 20 years time.
Ex-BT future-gazer (now a consultant) Pearson says inevitably hotel rooms will be fundamentally different to those currently available now, with owners able to meet the needs of guests through technology acting as personal concierges, lifestyle coaches, fitness trainers, psychologists and doctors.
The graphic below illustrates some of the functionality Pearson predicts will be available, but the tech inevitably grabbing the headlines is his idea of "virtual love making" for guests.
"Remote virtual love making will be possible by 2030, allowing individuals to connect with their partner whilst away from home. Couples will also be able to benefit from the ability to link peripheral nervous systems via active skin electronics together for enhanced love making."
"This will enable both individuals to experience each other’s feelings and emotions. Also, by wearing active lenses to change the image delivered to their retinas, individuals will be able to adjust how their partner looks whilst making love. This will enable people to change the image of their partner on a regular basis, and only they will be aware as their lover will not be able to tell what they are looking at."
So that's that, then.
Here is the graphic (and key below):
1. Interactive video panels cover full wall space
In 2025, augmented reality – the use of computer imagery overlaid on the field of view to augment the reality that the guest sees – will enable the entire surface of the hotel walls and furniture to be used an interactive display
2. Home from home upload: 3D room re-skin
Guests will be able to choose from a range of layouts and lonely business travellers will be able to display virtual family images
3. 3D audio effects, digital room soundproofing
A flat audio panel will enable guests to choose from a range of ambient sounds, such as the sound of the ocean to help them drift asleep
4. Virtual lighting selection from users’ home upload
Atmospheric lighting will stimulate the ambience of being at home
5. Medical sleep monitoring
Sleepwear featuring electro-responsive fabrics and microphones will enable measurement of skin conductivity (indicating stress or relaxation states), pulse, blood pressure and heart rate
6. Dietary advice from night time monitoring
Some medical conditions can be monitored by simple sensors connected to the skin or even in fabrics, or even monitoring the sleeper’s breath. When the guest wakes up, a report on their medical state could include advice on foods that should be consumed more or less.
7. Auto-massage de-stress pillows
A gentle head and neck massage will help guests drift off to sleep
8. Uploads/downloads through digital jewellery
By 2035 mobile phones will be extinct and tiny items of digital jewellery will service all guests’ mobile and IT requirements
9. Optimum sleep-cycle alarm
Sleep-cycle alarms will monitor the electrical activity in the brain and identify the best time to wake the guest – so that he/she wakes up feeling fresher than if they had awoken just a few minutes into a new sleep cycle
10. Personal link-up: ‘Pillow Talk’
The 2035 pillow will house a range of soft electronics to detect brain, REM and sleep activity, as well as miniature microphones to enable solo travellers to chat with their family back home
11. Video calls to family
Guests would be able to communicate with home very easily, using a full 3d overlay of a virtual room just like one at home. A businessman away on a trip would be able to feel they were effectively at home with the family. Even in bed, they would be able to see their partner next to them if they wish.
12. Virtual office and multi-way conferencing
Virtual technology will enable business travellers to their hotel room into a working office, with walls becoming video monitors with webcam capability
13. In-room augmented reality fitness interface
Cyberspace will play a huge role in the 2035 hotel room, where guests can enjoy a work-out session with a virtual personal trainer
14. Interactive gaming and fitness
Guests can also invite digital creatures of characters from movies and games to share their room with them
15. Online ordering and purchasing
Guests will be able to shop from their room, with the walls replicating the interior of a shop, or check out stocks and shares prices via web on the wall