British Airways to Give 'Happy Pill' to Passengers to Monitor In-Flight Happiness

It seems happy pills do exist. British Airways may soon administer "ingestible sensors" to passengers so it could monitor stomach acidity levels and change their in-flight dining accommodations. This is one of the many ways the British flag carrier plans to improve their overall experience.

The hypothetical happy pill may come in all manners of sensors such as temperature, sleep phase, and heart rate. Periodical checks on the physiological states of passengers can help them manage sleep times, meals, and in-flight entertainment.

This new system for "controlling" the environment of the passenger has been outlined in a patent application filed in the Intellectual Property Office early this 2016.

According to the patent, it says the overall goal is to facilitate the environment with great efficiency and enables "improved control and personalisation" of the said environment. It also cited Virgin Atlantic's Jet Lag Fighter app that allows users to enter personal data that the app would use to provide a program to alleviate jet lag.

According to the Telegraph, the digital pill was invented by researchers of MIT last year. The pill is about the size of an almond that allows doctors to continuously monitor the vitals of patients. It has microphones in a silicone casing that would eventually pass through the digestive track in two days. 

According to another Telegraph article, perhaps the highest profile outing of such a technology is when the US Food and Drug Administration agreed to review such a pill from Otsuka Pharma and Proteus Digital Health to use it to monitor whether patients are following directives from doctors. 

British Airways said that with the help of other data, it can best understand the best way to guarantee the best way to enhance a passenger's sleeping, eating, and entertainment preferences.