Can you believe it’s 2016 right now? We’re one year further into the future than Marty McFly ever went, truly at the frontier of technology as we know it, and edging ever closer to real life hoverboards. Welcome to travel in the future – what a time to be alive!
To celebrate the beginning of another year of using our tech know-how to make booking and planning travel online easier for you, here at KAYAK we thought we’d take a look at some forthcoming tech products and ideas that are also designed to have a positive impact on your travel experience and give you a little travel technology update. The future is now, folks. Buckle up.
Automation
Hospitality is all about face-to-face, friendly service, however, there is an increasing number of self-service options. You’ll have heard talk of Japanese hotels staffed entirely by robots, but for things like check-ins, concierge and housekeeping stuff, many major hotel chains like Marriott are working on apps that will almost let you stay without really interacting with anyone at all.
The Digitsole Smartshoe by Zhor Tech
This one’s pretty Marty McFly: the Digitsole heats up your feet in the cold, keeps an eye on your too-ing and fro-ing, watches your calories for you, tightens and loosens wherever you need it and adjusts its insoles to manage shock absorption, and they even have headlights. The shoes will be available for all sizes when they come out this spring. They charge wirelessly and are controlled through their own app.
Faster Wi-Fi
With more of us carrying more than one device; hotels streaming Netflix; and airlines offering personal devices to use rather than those screens in the back of seats, we’re going to start seeing super fast Wi-Fi in the air and on the ground soon. Tech company Gogo recently announced their 2Ku technology for in-flight Wi-Fi that can deliver as much as 70Mbps to you while you’re 25000 feet in the air, and the smart guys at Boingo have put in 20Mbps Wi-Fi at several airports, including major US cities NYC, Boston and Chicago.
Petcube is the answer to those anxieties we all feel when leaving our pets at home alone. You can watch your dog or cat back home through the eyes of the cube while sipping on cocktails beachside, as well as talk to them through the cube’s speakers and play a game of laser tag. The cube lets you know through its own app when your pet is awake or moving around so you can check in or chat to it. The cube lets a few others keep an eye on your furry friends as well and the wide-angle lens means you don’t need to worry about the little guys getting up to no good out of view.
ili the Wearable Translator
ili is a wearable translator that works between English, Chinese and Japanese. Available for pre-orders from March, this little box the size of an old iPod shuffle translates completely in real-time with no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth required. To use it, you hold down a button and speak, and when you release the button the ‘lil unit translates what you said out loud in either English, Chinese or Japanese, with more languages coming soon.
Cloud passports
Australians are beginning to use biometric passports that store personal information, allowing them to travel easily to select countries and quickly clear immigration through something called a SmartGate. But they are now looking to introduce virtual passports, using cloud-stored data.
Like the e-passport, a cloud passport would contain personal information, including biometric data and photo ID, and would eliminate the need to carry an actual passport. While any system in place will have to satisfy security requirements, this idea has the potential to eventually become the global norm.
KAYAK’s Trips App
It’s certainly an exciting time to travel, we think you’ll agree. But alongside all the above travel industry innovations, might we humbly put forward our very own Trips feature, available on our desktop site and mobile travel app? It’s a great tool that allows you to keep all your confirmation emails and travel details in one handy, easy-to-access, place. You can also view and edit your itinerary and share it with friends, family or colleagues, get real-time alerts for check-in, gate information, flight delays and more. And it’s free, which is handy. Check it out right here.
