High Tech Concept Ocean Liner - HOLY SHIP!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,302 words · ~6 min read
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so when royal caribbean reached out asking to sponsor a piece on the
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technology they're building into their cruise liners my initial reaction was
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like what am i going to say about navigation
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systems then i looked at the list of high-tech
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ship features that they were going to be showing off hydrogen fuel cell power
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systems facial recognition embarkation vr dessert bar wait what
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and then i promptly boarded a plane for new york
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okay so some of the tech they covered in the keynote did actually end up being
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ship stuff like how they're using augmented reality to overlay navigation
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information during adverse weather conditions and how by using computer
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modeling to change the hull shape they were able to reduce drag through the
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water by about five percent improving the ship's fuel economy and reducing its
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environmental impact then they moved into the open source platform
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that royal caribbean is contributing to that's designed for much faster
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innovation in the industry as a whole
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now on the surface this future app
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that's part of it has the ability to see
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and book cruises view a map of the ship and book
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excursions and activities which is pretty standard hey we've got an app
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fair but if you dig a little deeper you unearth some incredible functionality a
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digital concierge will understand and answer common questions guest to guest
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shipwide messaging is built in so you can avoid incurring sms roaming charges
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and to help coordinate meetups and scheduling
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ship wide multi-deck location tracking
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makes it simple to see like where the kids are hanging out or if the reason
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that you can't find each other is that you're actually at the same end of the
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ship but on different decks and then comes the really next level stuff royal
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caribbean will be using machine learning to look at factors like your past
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preferences demographics your travel companions and your schedule to
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recommend activities during time slots when you're available so
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if you're dining with the in-laws it might suggest a nice red wine pairing
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rather than a vodka soda and the central component of this more
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open ecosystem is the bring your own device concept so
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no more clunky nfc bracelets just install the app snap a selfie
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scan your luggage when you embark and you walk on board the facial recognition
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cameras will authenticate you based on the picture that you just took
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which brings us to the deck of the ship complete with
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clouds that actually ended up looking more like
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giant sheep suspended from wires but uh a plus for effort you guys and where we
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get to the real reason that i would be willing to allow an app to know where i
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am on the ship at all times now they're still evaluating different technologies
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for how to do it most reliably but the demo that they did tonight here allowed
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me to just fire up the app click a drink monitor the real time
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status like what then about a minute later someone shows
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up hands me the drink and takes off if that is not the future of pampering
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i don't know what is and augmented reality was another big talking point
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here as i mentioned before it's already in use for navigation but it's also got
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some more entertaining uses so guests
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waiting to embark can play augmented reality games and on the deck you'll
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actually be able to point your phone at these kinds of picture frames and
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they'll give you an x-ray vision-like experience into the real-time inner
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workings of the ship with live views available of places like the galley
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where the food's being prepared the bridge the engine room and more now not
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everything they demoed here necessarily has a firm roll out time but there were
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some other really cool concept level things with virtual dining as the
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standout for me using htc vives with
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front-facing cameras for hand presence they had us try three different food
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morsels in front of us that were also being tracked by the cameras
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so the vr dining experience would actually know
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what you're eating and then adjust the visuals to match now
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obviously it's pretty first gen right now but i can imagine that as vr
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headsets get lighter and less clunky taking a bite of ice cream for instance
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and watching snow begin to fall or biting into something spicy and being
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transported to a scorching desert would be pretty cool
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obviously i wouldn't eat three meals a day like that but as an experience it
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was utterly unique and everyone walking out thought it was a ton of fun next we
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rode the automated shuttle so cool this
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was actually my first time in a fully driverless vehicle and headed into the
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future stateroom showcase so rooms like
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this will be rolling out over the next year as you walk in the room welcomes
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you opening the curtains and setting the mood with some lights even displaying a
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message on screen if you're let's say celebrating a special occasion with your
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cruise and then everything in here including the air conditioning can be
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controlled via the built-in touch controls through your phone from anywhere on the
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ship or good night in the case of certain functions like scene lighting with your
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voice a standout feature for me was the
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support though for both chromecast and apple tv because i'm exactly the kind of
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person who would want to bring my own content with me on a trip that's
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fantastic the stateroom concept room took mood
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lighting one step further with displays
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built into or projected onto the ceiling
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and the floor allowing you to go to sleep to the sights and sounds of a
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clear starry sky or a tropical storm if
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that suits your fancy although we don't have an eta for those to be rolled out
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after that we rode the shuttle one more time arriving at the hydrogen fuel cell
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power unit from ballard that it turns out was actually using the 150 kilogram
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hydrogen storage trailer in the parking lot to run many of the demos we saw
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today including the robo screens and the
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immersion tunnel so the box on top here is about
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one-third fuel cell stack along with some accompanying components like the
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safety mechanism and fuel delivery system and a humidifier that actually
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recirculates some of the waste moisture
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to keep the whole unit operating at an optimal humidity level then down below
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we get a filtered air intake a compressor that's actually an automotive
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supercharger that's been modified by the manufacturer for peak reliability the
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cooling system which captures the heat from the exothermic fuel cell reaction
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and would normally use sea water in this heat exchanger to dissipate it along
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with a waste reservoir that ends up collecting pure water that on a ship
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then could be added to the drinking water supply saving energy for the
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high-powered desalination units that cruise ships normally rely on entirely
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so thanks to royal caribbean for bringing us out to new york to cover this cool event and thanks to you guys
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for watching this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get
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subscribed hit the like button check out the link that we'll have to royal
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caribbean in the video description and while you're down there maybe check out
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our merch store which has cool shirts like this one as well as our community
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forum