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Transportation Games

Future Airline Safety Instructions Will Be Given By Game Apps 64

Posted by samzenpus from the playing-it-safe dept.
vrml (3027321) writes "They revealed the existence of their project only to aviation safety specialists at the recent FAA Conference on Cabin Safety in Philadelphia (PDF). Now a team of Italian researchers from the HCI Lab of the University of Udine has publicly released the first in a set of aviation safety apps on which they are working. Their mission is to propose novel, first-of-their-kind solutions to a well-known problem in aviation safety: passengers lack preparedness about what to do in aircraft emergencies, and do not pay attention or do not clearly comprehend the pre-flight briefings and safety cards used by airlines to instruct them about safety. So the project is re-inventing safety cards and briefings with new media, turning them into games and apps. The first game they decided to release focuses specifically on the 'Brace for impact' position: players can pose the body of their avatar in the 3D airplane cabin and get a personalized simulation of a crash landing . To win the game, you must save your avatar (and yourself)."
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Future Airline Safety Instructions Will Be Given By Game Apps More

Future Airline Safety Instructions Will Be Given By Game Apps

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  • That will do wonders to those that already have a fear of flying.

    Next time those safety precautions are being explained, entertain yourself by looking around at your fellow flight guests. It's not like you're missing anything, if the plane comes crashing down having your tray table up won't safe you, so you can just as well enjoy the instructions.

    Take a look around. Watch those that are deadly afraid of flying go pale (usually no later than when the instructions get to the "in case of cabin pressure loss" p

    • Re:Oh great (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stoborrobots ( 577882 ) on Friday April 11, 2014 @02:53AM (#46722645)

      It's not like you're missing anything, if the plane comes crashing down having your tray table up won't safe you...

      This is an example of where a lack of understanding of the risks involved leads to a lack of appreciation of the safety requirement.

      You're right: in a "falling out of the air" crash where the aircraft is destroyed, having the tray table secured won't save you.

      However, the vast majority of aircraft don't fall out of the sky.

      Let's consider the real likely outcomes:

      The plane touches down a little too fast, and decelerates particularly hard. Almost certainly all the passengers will survive. Having your tray table down allows it to fly upwards as a result of the braking force, hitting your chin on the way through and giving you either severe whiplash, a broken jaw, or a concussion. Having your tray table secured will ensure that none of those happen, and the worst possible outcome is moderate whiplash.

      Similarly with having the seat back upright vs reclined: a passenger thrown forward as a result of the rapid deceleration is more likely to hit a reclined seat (which is thus closer to them) than an upright one.

      Being in the brace position means that your body is as far forward as it physically can go, which reduces the likelihood that your head or arms are thrown forward into the seat in front.

      The safety instructions are not there to help you survive a destructive crash, they're there to reduce the number of injuries you receive in a non-fatal crash.

      • Re:Oh great (Score:4, Interesting)

        by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Friday April 11, 2014 @03:35AM (#46722819) Homepage Journal
        The safety instructions are not there to help you survive a destructive crash, they're there to reduce the number of injuries you receive in a non-fatal crash.

        Actually it's sort of both. If the plane crashes and everyone doesn't die instantly then your chances of survival are really high if you just make sure to get out of there as soon as possible, often times post-crash fires claim more lives than the initial crash does.

        Also if you crash on water, get the hell out of there and don't inflate your life jacket till you've left the airplane [wikipedia.org]

        • Actually it's sort of both. If the plane crashes and everyone doesn't die instantly then your chances of survival are really high if you just make sure to get out of there as soon as possible, often times post-crash fires claim more lives than the initial crash does.the airplane

          Yep, I saw that documentary too.

          Your chances of survival are mostly dependent on how close you are to the emergency exit and how many people you can beat to the door. Remember that the cabin may be full of smoke and you won't be able to see/hear a damn thing, you'll be doing it by feel so count the rows when you sit down and know which way to go.

          Also important is to position your legs well so they don't get broken when the seat collapses (they're designed to collapse to absorb impact). Broken legs are a com

      • OK, but where does the live vests come in this scenarion of a taxiway fender-bender?

        • Nothing I said is limited to landings on runways (other than my use of the phrase "touches down"). Yeah, my wording was a little sloppy, which made it sound like I was talking about a "taxiway fender-bender", but I meant in any situation where the pilot makes an unexpected landing, whether on land or water.

          If the plane lands in a way which leads to the plane disintegrating, nothing will save you.

          If the plane lands in a way which is unusual, but leaves large chunks of the plane undestroyed, following simple

      • I am sorry have you actually listened to one? They are a waste of time.
        You would be far better off making sure safety equipment is standardised across airlines (if not already) and clearly labelled and its purpose obvious. You can leave the cards in the seats as people are bored on planes and will usually read them at least once.

        The information in those demonstrations is trivial and hardly helpful once put to the test. People will panic and that means that little boring sermon will mean almost nothing where

        • I think a live demonstration of putting on a life vest is worth more than any drawing on a piece of paper.

          • What they do is place a deflated piece of plastic over their head and pretend pull on a cord.
            That is hardly a live demonstration worth the effort.

            Not all demonstrations are equal.

            If you want people to remember you would do live drills. Nothing else really works.

        • The information in those demonstrations is trivial and hardly helpful once put to the test. People will panic and that means that little boring sermon will mean almost nothing where it counts.(as always happens)

          Perhaps we should be campaigning for people to undergo aircraft-emergency simulations?
          You're right that people panic, but people only panic because the situation is unusual. If people regularly experience "emergency" situations without the danger/fear (especially throughout childhood), they can be tr

        • I fly between 4 and 6 sectors per month, on average. I can practically recite the various safety briefings for two different airlines, across 5 different aircraft types. Yes, I've heard them. Yes, I find it ridiculous that after 30 years of flying, I still have to listen to them telling people how to put on their seatbelt. And I'm certainly not a fan of blind adherance to authoritarian protocols.

          However, I have had experience in designing risk minimisation procedures, and safety/security system design. And

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      More importantly, please tell me what's in the pre-flight safety check.

      Chances are that you've heard it so many times that you could give it.

      Your belt clips around your waist. You undo by lifting the buckle. Your oxygen mask will drop down from the overhead compartment. Your exits are here, here and here, etc. etc. etc.

      The danger of the pre-flight "safety" check is that it's nonsensical to do it. Emergency measures should not be designed that people have to learn to use them. They should be clearly mar

      • If you're so familiar with the safety briefing that you could give it yourself, then the briefings are working *exactly* as they are intended to!
        Emergency preparedness is intended to drill these practices into you so that when the time comes, you don't have to think about what to do, you know what to do. Believe me, in a panic situation most ill prepared people don't calmly assess their surroundings and take the time to look for the instructions, but their first reaction is to get themselves out of harm's w
        • They should give free meals or drinks to the passengers that can do the briefings along with the aircraft attendants. It would at least make it more interesting.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dfm3 ( 830843 )
            Here's one better: give everybody a safety orientation quiz before boarding, and those with the best scores get their choice of an aisle or window seat, choice of exit row or no exit row, and guaranteed space in an overhead bin. Oh, and the ability to select a non-sweaty seatmate. Put everybody else in the back and separate them by a soundproof door along with anybody flying with an infant-in-arms. Do that, and I won't even need the drink...

      • Seriously, in order to save a few minutes and pennies, the airlines probably would scrap them if they could.

        At least in the U.S., the safety briefings are mandated by the FAA: see FAR 91.519 and FAR 91.1035. As a private pilot, I'm required to give the same sort of briefing to any passengers I carry before takeoff. (Basically, "here's how to fasten the seat belt; here's how to open the door; please don't do that in flight.") Getting the FAA to modify those regs will probably require something between an Act

    • If the plane comes crashing down having your tray table up won't safe you, so you can just as well enjoy the instructions.

      No, but if the plane crashes on landing and I need to evacuate from the window seat, the last thing I want do is squeeze past your tray table so I can GTFO. Seat pitch is bad enough as it is without having to squeeze past a table so you can play Angry Birds on final approach..

      • The exit rows don't have fold-down tables (for that very reason).

      • I don't know what airlines you fly with, but in the ones I fly on there is enough time not only to fold up the table but to actually build a new one from toothpicks if need be between final approach and when you finally can hope that someone opens that damn door.

  • I hope it's like that "stair dismount" game from a few years back. Pick a position, crash the plane, and get points for how injured your passenger is!

  • I would love to see a Double Dragon style brawler where you tried to make your way to the emergency exit as fast as possible, bonus points for knocking back into seats people trying to extract heavy overhead items to take with them down the slide.

    Or those simply too slow, but then you'd lose points for that - unless you carried them...

    • I'd hope for an angry mob killing the player if he tried to get his laptop out with him in an emergency.

      I sure as hell know I would kill him. Anyone valuing his laptop higher than the life of the people around him should be removed from the gene pool, for we all are better off without him.

    • I would love to see a Double Dragon style brawler where you tried to make your way to the emergency exit as fast as possible, bonus points for knocking back into seats people trying to extract heavy overhead items to take with them down the slide.

      Sounds like a normal scene after arriving at the gate with a cheap airline.

  • Will they kick me off the plane if I lose the game?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drkim ( 1559875 )

      Will they kick me off the plane if I lose the game?

      No... I believe the gaming all happens at the boarding gate. You're not allowed on the plane until you get a perfect score on the emergency testing.

      Of course, if you do TOO well on the First-Person-Shooter part of the testing, the TSA will take you aside for extra screening.

      • No... I believe the gaming all happens at the boarding gate. You're not allowed on the plane until you get a perfect score on the emergency testing.

        In other news: airlines have banned everyone over the age of 40 from ever flying again.

  • The problem is, if I can get my avatar into a position where he's catapulted across the plane, that's a lot more satisfying than actually winning the game.

  • âoeTell me, and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.â

    The safety instructions are mostly just telling, because the showing part is, for most passengers, too far away and happens too fast to be useful. Anything that forces the learner to actually do something with the material himself works much better than just telling the material.

  • Duke-Dont-Nuke-Em

  • Tell me, and I'll forget
    Show me, and I'll remember
    Involve me, and I'll understand

  • Just don't make me play the game. This sounds like the most boring game i will ever play.

  • ... against fellow passengers. Survivor collects life preserver and makes it to emergency exit. All you have to do is make it past the 400 lb ogre the cabin crew inevitably seats next to the over wing exit plug door before he gets stuck in it.

    Yeah. I'm going to enjoy this game.

  • I have feeling that the group of people who do not understand pictures on the safety card greatly overlaps with the people who do not understand how to download and use apps on a smartphone.

  • Nothing makes you feel safer in flight than simulating crashes and escapes. I wonder if they will also simulate the cabin breaking into pieces and crawling over bodies to make your escape.
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