US. Imagine an airport environment tailored to each customer. Imagine multiple customers seeing personalised content tailored to their journey on a giant digital screen, at the exact same time and in their preferred language. Imagine no longer. It’s reality. Parallel Reality.
Delta Air Lines, in partnership with Misapplied Sciences, will launch the first-ever ‘Parallel Reality’ beta experience for customers departing Detroit Metropolitan Airport this year – the first step, the airline says, toward a future where the airport environment itself is tailored to each customer.
The new, opt-in technology allows multiple customers to see personalised content curated to their unique journey.
At a glance, the “category-defining” technology will provide wayfinding and personalised travel information, including directions to the departure gate, or the closest Delta Sky Club.
“This breakthrough technology has to be seen to be believed – it has the potential to make even the busiest airports much easier to navigate, even if you don’t speak the language,” said Delta Chief Operating Officer Gil West. “Not only will Parallel Reality reduce stress and save time for our customers, but when combined with the warmth and thoughtfulness of our Delta people, the possibilities are endless.”
Click here to watch a video demonstrating Parallel Reality
For the beta experience in Detroit, nearly 100 customers will be able to simultaneously view personalised content tailored to their individual travel on a single large-scale digital screen located just past security. Customer and employee feedback from this opt-in trial will be critical to shaping the future experience, Delta said.
How the beta experience will work:
- After moving through security at Detroit, travellers will see a Parallel Reality display near the Delta Sky Club (Concourse A, McNamara Terminal).
- Delta customers departing from Detroit who want to participate can scan their boarding pass on the boarding pass scanner and select the language they want to use.
- Leveraging multi-view pixels and proprietary technology, this innovation enables each customer to see personalised, in-language messages – tailored just to them – as they walk past the digital screen.
- For the trial, tailored messages may include personalised wayfinding, flight information or updates, boarding time, the nearest Delta Sky Club or even upgrade/standby status.
- This experience will always be opt-in, and customer information is not stored.
“We are looking forward to bringing this to life with Delta,” said Misapplied Sciences CEO Albert Ng. “The team there quickly saw the value the Parallel Reality experience would bring to its customers and had the vision, brand and resources to help bring it to market.
“While we will start with Delta customers in Detroit, eventually Parallel Reality technology can be used to create seamless, engaging and personalised experiences in nearly any out-of-home venue – ranging from stadiums to theme parks to convention centers and more.”
Delta said that the Parallel Reality technology first caught the eye of its innovation experts at The Hangar, the airline’s innovation centre. From there, Delta identified an opportunity to leverage the innovation to transform the airport experience. Teams across the company have since worked with Misapplied Sciences to develop and hone the beta experience launching in mid-2020. Delta also made an equity investment in Misapplied Sciences in 2019.
“At Delta, we foster an innovation ecosystem that allows us to think big, start small and scale fast as technology and consumer expectations evolve – whether it’s with our own solutions or in partnership with leading start-ups like Misapplied Sciences,” West added.
[“Welcome to an airport designed for you”]
The partnership forms part of Delta’s work to transform travel to be less stressful and more enjoyable, the airline commented. “The possibilities are endless for integrating information into the Parallel Reality experience from the Fly Delta digital concierge experience and Delta’s Operations & Customer Center’s new AI-driven machine learning platform,” it said.
Delta serves nearly 200 million people every year on more than 5,000 daily departures across its network to over 300 destinations in over 50 countries.
