Entertainment on airplanes has increased in later years and is a significant part of the flight experience. In-flight Entertainment (IFE) can consist of many different types of entertainment such as movies, music, live-tv, and games. Recently, the attention to making accessible websites has also increased. WCAG is a set of guidelines for creating accessible web pages. The target devices for WCAG are computers, laptops, and mobile phones. This thesis aims to customize the guidelines and success criteria in WCAG to increase their utilization when applied in an IFE system. Additionally, this thesis focuses on finding differences in accessibility for IFE systems and websites.    The procedure to customize WCAG was done through literature and case studies. The data gathered from these two methods were used together to customize the guidelines and success criteria. The case study was done on people working with the development of IFE systems. Following the customization of WCAG, a comparison was made in a specific scenario between the customized guidelines and WCAG. The study showed that customization of some guidelines and success criteria in WCAG was necessary if WCAG was applied in an IFE system. However, the results also showed that most guidelines and success criteria can be used in an IFE system without changes. The customized guidelines are called IFCAG - In-Flight Content Accessibility Guidelines. To conclude, the guidelines and success criteria in IFCAG should work better than WCAG when applied in the development of an IFE system. However, this cannot be determined before IFCAG is applied during an actual development of an IFE system. Furthermore, WCAG consists of a large ecosystem of additional supporting documents. Future research could also look at these documents with IFE systems in mind.

Airplane travel has become more easily available and affordable for the general public. This shift has, together with rapid digitalization, led to the widespread adoption of in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems which are screens attached to the back of airplane seats that allow passengers to watch movies, listen to music, and play games. They are now commonly found onboard flights to keep passengers entertained during their travels. Ensuring effective communication between pilots, cabin crew, and passengers is essential during flights and is typically achieved through public announcements (PA). Despite their importance, there is a lack of international regulations ensuring all passengers, particularly those with disabilities, can access this information.  This study aims to investigate how the accessibility of PAs given through an IFE system can be improved, emphasizing its impact on passenger safety and comfort. This is achieved by identifying possible accessibility problems, implementing solutions to create a more accessible interface, and evaluating the outcome of the alterations made.  The evaluations consist of completing barrier walkthroughs and accessibility heuristic evaluations along with user tests. Accessibility scores are measured for all three types of PA: video, audio, and text. A prototype was created, in which accessibility issues are solved and evaluated with the same measurements to be compared with previous results. Additional testing with persons with disabilities was performed to evaluate their opinions of the alterations made.  Results show that the created prototype improves the accessibility scores for all types of PA. The data indicate that the largest contributors to the increase in accessibility are the added functionality of transcribing audio, ensuring that video has captions and that the text messages only disappear once the passenger actively dismisses it.  In conclusion, the study shows that the accessibility of PA can be evaluated, and problems can be identified and improved following IFE-specific guidelines. It is possible to achieve a satisfactory level of accessibility for persons with disabilities to feel that they can receive all given information and not feel confused or stressed while receiving it.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4051.pdf: 3034000 bytes, checksum: 6f4649d36355639c68e2f748d60b0a83 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-09 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / The growth of passengers air transport as well as the competitiveness of the aviation industry have made the comfort a noticeable item to be taken into account, which is characterized as a key variable for the cabin project and also for the differentiation in the market, once it is related to the passengers satisfaction and acceptance when it comes to this transportation modality. In this context, the in-flight entertainment has been considered one of the most relevant requisite in order to improve the comfort while in the cabin in a way that it enhances values of the airline companies, contributing for a more pleasant and also a rather positive air travel experience. Thereby the aim of this study is to understand the aspects of either comfort or discomfort in airplane cabins, exchanging views on the importance of entertainment activities on board as well as their influence on comfort and discomfort in the cabin. Firstly, based on the literature review it made possible to clearly understand the concepts of comfort and discomfort including the current possibilities of in-flight entertainment. Considering comfort as an outstanding and suitable point to be applied in the cabin, this study is grounded in the approach of the analysis of the activity. As such, the data collection was implemented in two contexts: survey of Brazilian commercial aviation (airports and domestic flights) and interviews with companies connected with the entertainment industry and air transport sector. The procedures adopted have permitted to identify the active travellers preferences and expectations when it comes to in-flight entertainment, what is more, the constraints during the activities occurred in the cabin and tendency of the industry in question. Some recommendations for the project were made, highlighting, mainly, the importance of the amenities in the aircraft cabin for the travelers to use their own devices during the flight. / O crescimento do transporte aéreo de passageiros, bem como da competitividade no setor, tem atraído a atenção da indústria para a questão do conforto, o qual se caracteriza como uma variável chave para projeto de cabines e para a diferenciação no mercado, uma vez que se relaciona a satisfação e aceitabilidade dos passageiros quanto esta modalidade de transporte. Neste contexto, o entretenimento a bordo tem sido visto pela indústria como um dos elementos mais importantes para melhoria do conforto na cabine, de modo que este é percebido enquanto uma solução que agrega valor à companhia aérea, garante vantagens na competitividade do mercado e amplia as possibilidades de ação durante a viagem tornando a experiência de voo mais positiva e agradável. Deste modo, o objetivo deste estudo é compreender os aspectos de conforto e desconforto em cabines de aeronaves, discutindo a importância das atividades de entretenimento a bordo e a influência destas nas questões de conforto e desconforto na cabine. Primeiramente foi realizada a revisão da literatura para entendimento dos conceitos de conforto e desconforto, bem como das possibilidades atuais de entretenimento a bordo. Tendo em vista a relevância da possibilidade de agir para o conforto na cabine, este estudo fundamenta-se na abordagem da análise da atividade. Assim sendo, a coleta de dados foi aplicada em dois contextos: survey na aviação comercial brasileira (aeroportos e voos domésticos) e entrevistas com empresas ligadas à indústria de entretenimento e ao setor aéreo. Os procedimentos adotados permitiram a identificação da importância e das expectativas dos passageiros participantes quanto ao entretenimento a bordo, bem como dos constrangimentos durante a realização de atividades na cabine e as tendências de tal indústria. Foram elaboradas algumas recomendações para projeto, destacando, principalmente, a relevância das facilidades na cabine para que os passageiros possam utilizar seus próprios dispositivos eletrônicos durante o voo.

In this thesis an implementation of an Android application is made. The application is able to run on both an Android based In Flight Entertainment system screen, as well as on an Android smartphone. When two instances of the application is run on different systems, the two application instances are able to communicate with each other via UDP or Bluetooth. The implementation of the communication is evaluated. For implementations demanding high goodput, UDP is better suited than Bluetooth which is consistent with results of previous studies. For implementations where response times are more important than goodput, Bluetooth is considered to still be a viable option. The results shows that the hardware performance of the system running the application greatly impacts the resulting goodput and response times of the communication. Hardware performance is therefore concluded to be the biggest hurdle to overcome when implementing demanding application communication between smarthphones and the In Flight Entertainment systems targeted in this study. / I detta examensarbete så skapas en Android applikation. Applikationen kan köras på både en Androidbaserad In Flight Entertainment skärm, samt en Android smartphone. När två instanser av applikationen körs på olika enheter så kan applikationerna kommunicera med varandra via UDP eller Bluetooth. Implementationen av kommunikationen utvärderas. För implementationer som kräver högre goodput så är UDP bättre lämpat att använda än Bluetooth, vilket är konsekvent med resultat från tidigare utförda studier. För implementationer där låg responstid är viktigare än hög goodput, så är Bluetooth dock inte ett uteslutet alternativ. Resultatet visar att hårdvaruprestandan hos den enhet som applikationen körs på har en stor påverkan på kommunikationens goodput och responstid. Utifrån detta så dras slutsatsen att påverkan från hårdvaruprestandan är den största begränsningen som behöver adresseras vid implementation av krävande applikationskommunikation mellan smarttelefoner och de In Flight Entertainemet system som använts i denna studie.

Airway travel is an easy and accessible form of transportation that allows billions of people to travel the world each year. Many passengers are however not perfectly comfortable on flights, with stressful flight-related anxieties or phobias being common. These issues are all sources of various negative emotions and can be difficult to circumvent or tone down when on long flights. Previous research has shown that controlled breathing techniques and distraction from the situation are good approaches when dealing with the body's physiological stress responses, but both techniques have seldom been used in conjunction.    This thesis is targeting In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems used onboard modern aeroplanes to provide passengers with a serious game for alleviating stressful emotions during flights. The study aims to determine whether guided breathing combined with gameplay distraction can help passengers with various flight-related anxieties to relax and regain a calm state of mind. This was done in comparison to a standard breathing exercise. The data was collected from user testing involving Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) for happy and sad moods and the Strait-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to evaluate participants' emotional states. Heart rate measurements were used to analyse correlations between stress and heart rate. Finally, the game itself was evaluated for its intrinsic value, effectiveness for stress relief and the participants' intention to engage with it.  The results of the study could however not draw any conclusions that indicate that the serious game was any more effective than standard breathing exercises in most aspects, with both having a similar influence overall. A few components, namely immersion, enjoyment, entertainment, concentration and usability did however show a significant increase indicating that the serious game is a more enjoyable experience while remaining effective for relaxation and stress relief.  In conclusion, having a larger number of participants would have enabled the results to make more accurate and reliable findings. Heart rate was also found to be a poor predictor of stress, with more appropriate sensors being an area of improvement for future studies. Using both breathing techniques and distraction can however be considered to be a useful way to provide stress relief as both components were found to complement each other well.

In-flight entertainment (IFE) is facing exciting times ahead as more and more technological advancements find its way into the IFE-systems. With the increasing hardware capabilities of IFE-systems, one exciting technology which could be seen infuture IFE-systems is augmented reality (AR). AR could allow for virtual try-on (VTO) in a webshop, where passengers can view virtual representations of for instance, glasses or headpieces, augmented onto themselves through a camera on the IFE-screen. However, integrating VTO in a webshop comes with new challenges, both for the designer and the developer. This thesis has examined design guidelines for AR in a literature study, along with general principles for user experience (UX). Based on the findings from the literature study, a prototype for a webshop with integrated VTO, targeting IFE, has been build in an iterative design process. Furthermore, a small application has been built using Google’s AR-framework ARCore for Android, where users can try different virtual glasses. The literature study, along with usability testing in each design iteration, showed that there are no guidelines which can cover everything when designing for AR; however, the design guidelines presented by Google and Apple are a great place to start. Furthermore, the usability testing showed that people have certain expectations of a webshop, which indicates that VTO should be integrated seamlessly into the application without interfering with the layout. The application development showed that ARCore certainly is a potent tool when it comes to AR-development. However, ARCore is not open source,which could make it less appealing for companies in need of highly flexible solutions.