Las Vegas: Global cruise line Carnival Corporation has launched wearable devices aimed at gives passengers a connected and customised experience.
The Ocean Medallion, which will only be available on select ships, will use beacon and sensor technology to allow travellers to build personalised vacation experiences, browse and select from event-based itineraries, navigate on-board and in port, and share vacation photos and videos captured during their cruise, according to Arnold W. Donald, CEO of Carnival Corp, who gave a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.
“We recognise that each guest is different, and the things that make them happy are different. The quarter-sized, 1.8-ounce disc can be accessorised with jewellery, clips, key chains and bands or simply carried in a pocket or pocketbook,” he said.
The smart blue device is slated to debut aboard Princess Cruises in November, followed by Royal Princess and Caribbean Princess in 2018. The device will also help guests embark and disembark from the cruise ship, order food and drinks and open their cabin door without a key card, without users even having to touch their medallions.
Guest personalisation
The medallions work in conjunction with Carnival’s Ocean Compass, an information portal that can be accessed online or via ship kiosks, stateroom TVs, smartphones, tablets, laptops or the crew’s hand-held devices.
“The network supporting the Ocean Medallion had to be scalable and flexible enough to deliver an unprecedented level of guest personalisation and be delivered in an accelerated time frame,” said Michael Jungen, senior vice-president, guest experience design and technology at Carnival Corporation.
He said the medallion and the Ocean Compass work with a network of 4,030 interactive sensors throughout the ship that Carnival is calling the xIOS, or the Experience Innovation Operating System. Inside each medallion are multiple communication technologies including Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
The medallion is developed in partnership with TE2, an experience-driven personalised advertisement and content delivery company and Level 11, an experience design engineering firm.
