Samsonite announced a collaboration with Vodafone to develop its luggage tracking solution – Track&Go – at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Missing or permanently lost luggage is the nightmare of every traveller. Samsonite says it has been creating innovative travel solutions for over 100 years and now “wants to help mediate the problem of lost luggage”.
“Therefore our innovation team is closely following all developments on smart luggage and the technologies available in the market,” it said in a statement released during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
“An important step in this process is to work with leading technology companies. That’s why Samsonite is very happy to be trialling a new longer battery life, wider range technology called Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) with Vodafone, as an additional option for their Track&Go solution.”
Track&Go is a device that can be put into your travel or business bag, and can easily and privately be tracked by its owner. This technology will allow a new generation of telemetry tags to be built which are less intrusive and more efficient, using less power so can accommodate smaller batteries with a longer life.
The Track&Go solution is based on two principles: proximity alerts and geolocation. Thanks to the proximity alerts integration, users can instantly receive a smartphone notification when their bag gets out of their range. This will enable them to leave luggage in a dedicated compartment, while still enjoying their trip without any stress, for instance when travelling by train.
Accent Systems has built the Bluetooth Low Energy beacon inside the suitcase which use the Ephemeral Identifier (EID) recently released by Google. In a traveling context, this will help users to recover your luggage without taking the risk of being identified by malicious third parties. All that the traveller has to do is register as the owner of the luggage on the Travlr app from Samsonite, allowing it to start sending encrypted and rotating IDs.
This new proof of concept test with NB-IoT will look into the future possibilities of geolocation. It would make it possible to track valuables, anytime, anyplace. In case the bag gets lost, its owner will be able to see its current location and the necessary contact details to get belongings back, if applicable.
“Since technology is changing constantly, Samsonite will continue the research and development of user-centered solutions and new technologies that help the travel industry achieve their goal when it comes to mishandled bags and which will further improve your travel experience,” the company said. “The travel industry is very sensitive to safety and security, therefore our primary intention is to be compliant with all airline regulations in place, while bringing a reliable solution for the consumer.”
