Thales Group has unveiled its Immersive Business Class Seat, an airline seating concept that uses NFC to enable passengers to use their mobile phone to set their comfort and entertainment preferences before boarding.

“The NFC technology we use in the concept seat is used to transmit seat preference from the passengers’ mobile phone to the seat,” Thales explained to NFC World. “Essentially, the passenger would be able to choose the seat configuration, entertainment selection and services directly on their mobile phone prior to boarding.

“They would then board the plane, place their NFC-enabled devices on the seat receptor and the seat would recognise them and introduce their saved settings. It would also save the settings for the return journey or the next time the passenger travelled on one of the seats, by offering to continue movies or entertainment at the point they had previously stopped.”

The seat, developed in conjunction with aircraft interior specialist BE Aerospace and BMW Design Works, also includes integrated touchpad controls, an ultraHD main display and eye tracking.