Renaissance Hotels’ New Flagship Adds ‘Minority Report’ to the Guest Experience

Every morning at 4 a.m., the server at the new Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel pings the server at the Time Out New York media company to pull new travel and event content into the hotel’s groundbreaking digital theater experience using "ambient intelligence." For years in the hospitality industry, techies have pointed to the movie "Minority Report" to illustrate the future of sentient buildings that personalize the user experience by recognizing its inhabitants. This is what the beginning of that looks like. Ambient intelligence leverages the growing sophistication in today’s camera technology, face recognition software, and artificial intelligence to interact with humans — without accessing a person’s device via traditional beacon sensor technology. Upon entering the Renaissance, which opened Monday as the brand’s new flagship hotel, guests walk past the lobby through a long corridor with 22 camera sensors and 20 speakers. As you walk, the sensors track your X