“Never underestimate the power of a good flight’s sleep” is the new dictum from British Airways as part of their latest initiativefocusing on passenger’s wellbeing. The airline has made particular on-board refinements to have a positive effect on the body and mind, including updated menus and entertainment options and increased reclinabilty in their seats to ensure for a solid night’s rest.

Usually during testing these sort of improvements would require passengers to fill in a questionnaire to rate the changes but BA have created an unusual experiment that measures passenger’s mood during the flight. Using a neuro-sensor EEG-measuring headband synced to fibre-optic technology woven into the fabric, the Happiness Blanket changes colour from red to blue to show when passengers are at their most relaxed. Unsurprisingly this turned out to be when they were eating, enjoying the inflight entertainment or sleeping.

Brands tracking and collecting data on users' emotional responses is becoming more widespread. Studio XO’s XOX Sensory wristbandwas trialled at the New Director’s Showcase 2014 to measure levels of excitement in individual audience members. Again, an LED light embedded in the wristband moved through a spectrum of colours to indicate different emotional responses.