Nothing is safe from Samsung’s insatiable desire to make everything “smart,” not even suitcases. The company has reportedly teamed up with Samsonite to develop a kind of “smart luggage” that uses GPS to allow the owner of the luggage to check its location through their smartphone. This certainly isn’t a new idea but it’s nice to see two big name companies getting behind smart luggage, although there’s no word on when we can expect to buy them.
It’s the last thing you need at the end of a holiday. After leaving the plane with a tired and fractious family, you find yourself stood before the luggage conveyor belt – with no sign of your suitcase. But one firm is attempting to reduce the stress of worrying if your bag has been irretrievably lost – by fitting their designs with microchips. The technology, using global positioning systems similar to that found in a mobile phone, could also end the uncertainty over when a bag is about to appear on a baggage carousel. It could also share specific information with an owner’s mobile phone so if you are prone to leaving bags behind it can send an alert if you stray more than a few meters from it, also helping to reduce theft. The smart bag, which is being developed by Hong Kong based Samsonite in partnership with South Korea’s Samsung, could also be able to offer travellers a raft of other features. Samsonite chief executive Ramesh Tainwala told the Mail: ‘Smart luggage will be able to communicate with you but it needs to be able to do much more than just give its location.
