Marriott and MIT to make your business trips enjoyable?
Innovation in technology doesn't seem to stop its intrusion into our lives, there are absolutely no boundaries to where new ideas might apply. Marriott have been looking to innovate their hotels lately, their particular interest is to adapt stay conditions to reflect the needs of the new generation of travelers – the hotel industry wasn't exactly the fastest to implement any changes the last decade, rather relying on the good-old business model they've used for years.
What MIT came up with in collaboration with Marriott is a bit weird and exciting at the same time. You know how business trips and conferences may get a little lonely and boring at the end of all meetings and planned events. And what should one entertain himself with after? Go to a restaurant and have a meal, go to the lobby bar and have a drink – that pretty much covers the whole wild variety of options you've got. That's why MIT and Marriott have been working on a whole set of cool stuff to change that, coming up with the SixDegrees app that uses LinkedIn (Facebook, initially, but that felt too personal) to help you find people at the hotel, who share your interests and hobbies, or work at the same company.
The wildest idea they are going to test is having a special LED-equipped table that visually connects people when there's a match of interests by lighting up LEDs. As you might have guessed, the work is yet in progress, and the technology is yet to be tested. But turning a hotel into a social network is definitely one of those “never heard that before” ideas.
