We all know this travel frustration when you have arrived but your Luggage hasn't. It can take hours or even days to find the lost suitcase that may not turn up at all. But with new smart bags the problem will be gone – recently the jumbo jet maker Airbus has introduced bags with embedded GPS tracking chips capable of transmitting their locations to travelers and even contacting airlines directly when they get lost. The product, known as Bag2Go, updates you about your stuff via a smartphone app “Find My Bag” that allows to check whether a bag has made it on board and trace its location. The bag also allows self-service check-ins and can weigh itself to ensure that it meets airline requirements. It is a fruit of cooperation between Airbus, the famous German luggage maker Rimowa and US mobile carrier T-Mobile. However, the carrier's major competitor AT&T unveiled a similar concept at a demonstration of its "next-generation technologies" in May. The company envisions integrating the product with standard suitcases and bags (it might be an attachable tag or could also be built into suitcases directly). The thing works due to an RFID chip (an intelligent bar code that can talk to a networked system) inside the bag - it "pairs" smart-chipped bag tags with the flight itinerary and frequent flyer number. The ultimate goal of the designers is to work with the airlines IT system, contacting the carriers and get the luggage delivered to the owner's hotel. Though the products are still in the developmental stage and need approval from federal regulators, they're much awaited: US airlines mishandled over 141,000 bags in April, according to government statistics. Olga Yazhgunovich, Source: Voice Of Russia
New app: your luggage calling
We all know this travel frustration when you have arrived but your Luggage hasn't. It can take hours or even days to find the lost suitcase that may not turn up at all. But with new smart bags the problem will be gone – recently the jumbo jet maker Airbus has introduced bags with embedded GPS tracking chips capable of transmitting their locations to travelers and even contacting airlines directly when they get lost. The product, known as Bag2Go, updates you about your stuff via a smartphone app “Find My Bag” that allows to check whether a bag has made it on board and trace its location. The bag also allows self-service check-ins and can weigh itself to ensure that it meets airline requirements. It is a fruit of cooperation between Airbus, the famous German luggage maker Rimowa and US mobile carrier T-Mobile. However, the carrier's major competitor AT&T unveiled a similar concept at a demonstration of its "next-generation technologies" in May. The company envisions integrating the product with standard suitcases and bags (it might be an attachable tag or could also be built into suitcases directly). The thing works due to an RFID chip (an intelligent bar code that can talk to a networked system) inside the bag - it "pairs" smart-chipped bag tags with the flight itinerary and frequent flyer number. The ultimate goal of the designers is to work with the airlines IT system, contacting the carriers and get the luggage delivered to the owner's hotel. Though the products are still in the developmental stage and need approval from federal regulators, they're much awaited: US airlines mishandled over 141,000 bags in April, according to government statistics. Olga Yazhgunovich, Source: Voice Of Russia