Swiss Tuner Rinspeed Rolls Out Cocoon-Like "Sensosphere"

When Rinspeed introduced the Senso concept car at the 2005 Geneva Auto Show, it showed off a Zen-like vehicle that exerted a "positive effect" on passengers through the use of patterns, colors, music and aromatherapy. Now the Swiss tuner has taken some of the lessons learned with the Senso and applied them to postmodern aircraft cabins.

Rinspeed on Monday introduced its "Sensosphere" for airplanes, a concept developed in partnership with Strahle & Hess, Lumitec and the University of Zurich. The goal was to move away from "clinical and plastic" aircraft interiors into an elaborate sensory cocoon that puts a premium on mood lighting, fragrances and sound. The Sensosphere uses high-tech, computer-controlled surfaces that shine green, blue or orange. Rinspeed showed off images of the Sensosphere mimicking a sunset or a starry night inside an airplane cabin. Rinspeed said "the material can be made into any shape and does not need electric bulbs or LEDs." Instead, it uses what is described as "an innovative electroluminescent film technology."

"On the basis of the measured data, the passengers now receive various impulses to their senses that put them in a state of relaxed attentiveness," Rinspeed said in a statement.

In the past, Rinspeed has brought out many showstoppers at European auto shows, including such concepts as the zaZen, which featured a rear window that uses lighting technology to become a large holograph. At the 2007 Geneva Auto Show, Rinspeed rolled out the eXasis, a two-seater made of transparent high-tech plastic in collaboration with Bayer Material Science.