Seems like a normal PR piece turned into an 'article' in modern online journalism.

If these new seats actually help people sleep better it's great. Economy vs Business is not even comparable in terms of ability to sleep at least in terms of trans-Atlantic. I was lucky enough to get 2 trans-Atlantic (from midwest) trips in business where I had previously done economy normally and it was so relaxing and easy to sleep, for me.

It’s tough to defend CNN... but it has to recognize faces to do that right? :)

I think people generally consider facial recognition meaning to recognize your face, not just that one exists.

This is one of those rare cases where it's helpful to conflate the two since, when considering privacy implications, the tolerance of one begets the other. In other words, recognition of individual facial features should be treated with as much caution as individual facial recognition.

Depends on what you mean by "recognize faces".

It has to recognize that it's seeing a face and eyes, but it doesn't need to recognize that the face belongs to John Smith, Frequent Flyer #0123456789

What exactly is the privacy risk there?

The airline already knows who is sitting in the seat, and also their ff#

"Top 20 politicians from <party you don't like> looking stupid in long-haul flights".

How do they know which party that would be? Facial recognition, obviously.

Wait, are you trying to talk me out of it or sell me on it?

Who wants a camera pointed at their face for potentially 20+ hours?

People who use laptops all day?

I'd be willing to bet that a majority of HN readers have tape over their webcams.

Breastfeeding

It just has to detect them.