Samsung and Samsonite, two of the biggest manufacturers in their respective industries are teaming up to bring us smart luggage. While smart luggage itself isn’t anything new, Samonite and Samsung want to bring us smart luggage that actually does a lot more and is more than just a marketing gimmick.
Samsonite chief executive Ramesh Tainwala said “Smart luggage will be able to communicate with you but it needs to be able to do much more than just give its location, we are working with Samsung to create something that is more than a gimmick.”
One of the primary purposes of this venture would be to reduce airport stress especially while waiting for the baggage. You no longer have to worry about your bag being lost as the bag will let you know where it is and in how much time you will be able to get it from the conveyor belt. The luggage will also be able to communicate with your through messages. For example if you stray too far from it, you will receive a message on your phone alerting you.
The bag can even follow you using GPS coordinates and built in motors so even if you lose track of your luggage, it wont lose track of you. The company is already testing working prototypes of suitcases with motorized wheels. Of course the distance at which the bag follows you is something that could be programmable according to the users needs and it will make traveling a whole lot easier once implemented.
They are also planning to make the bags smart enough to check themselves in. That could save travelers a whole lot of time and energy. The bags would have the flight and owner information embedded into them. All you have to do is leave them on a conveyor belt just like when you receive your bags at the end of the journey and the bag will take care of the rest. It’ll weigh itself, check in and send a unique identification code to your mobile phone that you can use to verify your luggage after your journey.
Emirates, Air France, Lufthansa and KLM are some of the partners that have been approached to help make this a possibility. Being in partnership with Samsung, we could possibly also expect some features that will be exclusively accessible through a Samsung phone. Perhaps it will also have pre-installed apps or be a part of the software while other phones will need a special app to use the smart features.
All these features however will come at a price and you might have to shed a lot of money to get one for yourself once it becomes available. But it will no doubt make your travel much faster and easier.