Yahoo News Carnival's new wearable cruise tech may help you forget about the rotten internet access
LAS VEGAS — Our travel experiences are suffused with technology, from the moment we start planning a trip online until we pay for it through our online credit card account. But there are gaps, especially if you take an ocean cruise. Get on a big boat and you can feel like you're stepping back into the 1970s.
The Carnival Medallion, a wearable IoT device for Carnival Cruise Ship passengers, may change all that.
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It essentially turns every passenger into a Bluetooth low energy beacon, lighting up fresh experiences in virtually every part of a Carnival Cruise ship and even in many of the activities that surround a cruise. With the Ocean Medallion, passengers will be able to do everything from unlocking cabin doors to making purchases, playing games, navigating the ship, finding friends and getting personalized service based on data sent to the Carnival Cruise system.
Image: carnival
Carnival Corporation introduced the new technology late Wednesday at CES in Las Vegas. It's the first time a travel company has made a major announcement at the consumer electronics event. The company's CEO, Arnold Donald, will deliver a keynote and demonstrate the technology at the event on Thursday.
The wearable Ocean Medallion sounds quite similar to Disney Magic Kingdom Magic Bands, but differs in one key way: Ocean Medallions do not need to be tapped on any readers.
The quarter-sized 1.8 ounce, weatherproof Ocean Medallion will, on supported cruises, be given out for free to every single cruise customer. Passengers will not have to return them. Carnival intends for guests to keep them as mementos.
Image: Carnival
The device, which can be accessorized to be worn on the wrist, as a pendant or even thrown in a pocket, is paired with a digital portal called Ocean Compass. Some of the experiences enabled by the device will happen on the phone, but most will be enabled by the cruise ship itself, which, as long as it's an "Ocean Medallion Class Ship," will have embedded sensors and screens that work with the system throughout the ship.
Ship shape and smart, too
This means the ship will always know where you are and react and respond accordingly. The data is all managed in real-time. For example, since every cabin door has a sensor, the ship will know when you're approaching your cabin and can even prepare it by, say, turning on the air conditioning before you get there.
Carnival Cruise executives said there's a side benefit to all this sensor data. Knowing where guests are and aren't helps save on energy, water and food. "Though that's not why we did it," said Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald.
Image: carnival
Backing up the the Ocean Medallion system is an edge network or, as Carnival Corp. Chief Experience and Innovation Officer John Padgett explained it, a mini cloud. The cruise ship needs that local cloud because, once the ship sets sail, it can be difficult to reach an internet-based one.
As for what Carnival does with all that data and how it protects the privacy and security of its passengers, Padgett explained that each Ocean Medallion is tokenized and encrypted. Plus, it never actually transmits data, just the ID to let the sensor know you're there, enjoying this particular experience. He noted that it's much more secure than magnetic strips on credit cards, which do exchange data with readers.
And since the virtually the entire system, including the readers, is proprietary, Padgett is not worried about someone trying to clone one of the Medallions. He also believes that their encryption, which sits on top of industry standard encryption, would pretty much thwart hackers.
One thing the Medallion won't do is alert the crew if you've fallen overboard. Padgett noted that it is not a safety device. So just be careful with all those drinks you ordered through the coin-sized wearable.
Don't set sail just yet. It's not clear what all this technology will do to the cost of a cruise. And even if the price of a cruise remains relatively static, the first Ocean Medallion-ready ship doesn't set sail until November on Princess Cruises' Regal Princess, followed by The Royal Princess and Caribbean Princess in 2018. Expansion across the whole fleet of Carnival Cruise ships could take years.
