Lufthansa Airlines has brought Avegant Glyph video glasses to its Business Lounge in Terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport, near Gate A26.
The carrier will have ten pairs of glasses available at its Frankfurt Business Lounge showing a choice of six videos ranging from relaxation above the clouds to a surfing flight attendant and the flying experience on the airline’s new A350 aircraft.
The development is part of Lufthansa's strategy to improve the digital experience for customers across all interaction with the airline.
Torsten Wingenter, senior director digital innovations, Lufthansa says:
“Entertainment electronics play an important role in travel. We have selected an impressive innovation from the incredible amount of new products available. Our guests can try these out informally and in a relaxed atmosphere.”
The swish Avegant Glyph video glasses, which are a video/audio player hybrid, were chosen as the Innovation Award Honoree at CES Las Vegas.
Eric Trabold, sales, business development & marketing at Silicon Valley-based Avegant, says:
"The special feature of the Glyph is the projection directly on the retina, which is more pleasant for the wearer compared to a screen.”
LEDs project the video signal onto two fields which each have two million tiny microscopic mirrors. Lenses focus the light reflection on the viewer’s retinas.
Wearers of the glasses can adjust the image to suit them, and the nose bridges are interchangeable. Video content from smartphones, laptops or game consoles is reproduced on the glasses using a micro-HDMI connection.
These glasses resolve some of the disadvantages for air travel of other, more immersive, VR players.
The Avegant Glyph viewer does not cover the wearer’s field of vision completely, which means passengers onboard can still be aware of flight attendants’ instructions and cabin movements.
The separate audio input means wearers can also use the Avegant Glyph as classic headphones to listen music or enjoy an audiobook when they are not viewing videos.
Further recent developments from the airline aimed at enhancing the digital experience include beacons to see how customers behave and how the airline can address any issues.
Lufthansa also recently launched its Mildred chatbot on Facebook Messenger.
Here's a clip from Avegant: