A REVOLUTIONARY design for plane seats could soon change the way economy flyers travel.
Using "smart textiles" and sensors, the seats can automatically adapt to your body to help make your journey more comfortable.
The prototype is made for plane manufacturers Airbus by London design firm Layer.
The seats are covered with fabric that's "knitted" with threads that will conduct electricity and can change in thickness to create cushioning in different areas.
With the help of sensors, the knitted surface can analyse a person's weight, size and how they move while in the seat and make automatic adjustments to make the seats more comfortable.
This includes changing the shape of the seats, how hard or soft the cushioning is and even the temperature.
Not only are the ergonomic seats made to be much lighter than most designs, created using carbon fibre, they also require less foam.
It could all go into saving the airline fuel – and therefore money – so flying could be cheaper in the future as a result.
Benjamin Hubert, founder of Layer, even designed an app to complement the seats, which could be used to make manual adjustments.
The app can also use the data from the seat's sensors to remind the person to move around if they have stayed stationary too long and offer passengers advice on how to sit better and avoid injury.
Benjamin told Dezeen how the design can help passengers to understand why they are aching.
He said: "The insight is informing passengers about what they’re doing in their seats, how it relates to ergonomics, comfort, and exercise, and putting those two bits of information together, it can coach you to sit better and to exercise more."
Another new aviation design revealed a standing seat protoype, created by Italian seating manufacturer Aviointeriors last year.
The seats would allow more 20 per cent more people onto a plane, but would have nothing and just a back and arm-rests.
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Plane seats can be uncomfortable due to cost-saving techniques by airlines, Sun Online Travel previously revealed.
To save money, seats must be lighter, which means less foam inside of them for the passenger to sit on.
The airline with the comfiest seats was found to be Virgin Atlantic, who had the most leg room, width and on board entertainment.
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