Here’s a great idea I came across today while walking the aisles of the exhibition hall at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas being held in Seattle this week.

A company called Belt-Tech has developed a way of making aircraft seat belts out of a conductive yarn that incorporates Real Time Information (RTI) technology. When the seat belt is buckled it sends a message to a light or a display screen so flight attendants no longer have to wake passengers up to check if they’ve got their seat belt buckled.

It seems that so far only one airline has placed an order for these belts for planes that won’t be delivered until 2015. But here’s betting that soon this type of seat belt will be standard issue.