Patent ID: 7567186

Claim:
In an aircraft having a passenger cabin and plural passenger service units arranged facing downwardly from a bottom of overhead baggage compartments above plural passenger seats in said passenger cabin, wherein each said passenger service unit is an integrated unit including a unit housing and at least one passenger reading lamp arranged in or on said unit housing; an improvement comprising a passenger information and notification system that comprises: plural universal notification displays, wherein a respective one of said universal notification displays is respectively integrated in each respective said passenger service unit by being arranged in or on said unit housing of said respective passenger service unit that is arranged facing downwardly from said bottom of said overhead baggage compartments, and wherein each said universal notification display is adapted to display a variable information content including text and/or graphic images; a databus system connected to said universal notification displays and adapted to transmit the variable information content respectively and selectively to said universal notification displays; information input devices that provide the variable information content; and an operating and control arrangement that is connected to said information input devices and to said databus system, and that is adapted to select and control the variable information content from the information input devices and to provide the selected variable information content via said databus system to said universal notification displays to be displayed thereon, wherein said operating and control arrangement includes an addressing arrangement adapted to provide different selected variable information content to different ones of said universal notification displays dependent on a particular passenger seat and/or group of passenger seats and/or a passenger class to which each said universal notification display is respectively assigned by individually addressing said different selected variable information content.