Digital technology has made our lives more convenient. It enables us to accomplish tasks previously reserved only for those who possess superhuman powers. Consider the advances in mobile phone technology. We can now engage someone at the other side of the globe on a face-to-face conversation via video call. We can now book a ride, shop, or order a meal using our smartphone. It is time to look at having smart luggage for modern travel needs of smart travellers. 
Digital technology has touched every aspect of our lives. It has become so pervasive it inspired luggage makers to design and produce the next generation of travel luggage. In the past couple of years, smart luggage has been gaining popularity and likely become the norm as mass production brings the price of this type of luggage down. Luggage Direct, an established luggage retailer, sees smart luggage as the travel companion of choice by the future traveller. 
Smart Luggage – Interconnectivity
Luggage designers have the modern traveller in mind when they conceptualized smart luggage. In this day and age when almost everyone owns a smartphone, makers of travel luggage thought it was a good idea to produce luggage that not only has modern security features but can also readily connect and exchange information with a smartphone or a laptop.
Smart luggage helps you stay within the allowable luggage weight prescribed by airlines with its built-in weight scale feature. The smart weigh sensing system sends out an alarm whenever the mass of the stuff you are packing reaches the maximum allowable weight mandated by your airline. This feature helps you avoid paying for unexpected overweight baggage fees. 
Smart Luggage – Built-In Batteries
It is not uncommon that a mobile phone or a laptop would run out of power just when the owner is about to make an important call or send out an urgent message. This is a nightmarish experience that sends travellers on a panicky search for an electric outlet in airports just to recharge the dying laptop or cellular phone.
Smart luggage now features a built-in power bank with USB port for recharging cellular phones and laptops. Some smart luggage brands have batteries that can recharge your phone up to ten times. Other luggage makers even install solar-powered batteries to give you a steady power supply.
Smart Luggage – Remote Locking and Unlocking
You have checked in your luggage and doubted whether you have locked it or not just as soon as the check-in staff dropped it on the moving conveyor belt. If you are carrying smart luggage, you no longer have to worry. Simply open the luggage’s mobile application and tap the remote locking button. Most smart luggage now comes with a mobile application to allow remote locking and unlocking.
Smart luggage with fingerprint locking and unlocking technology is well protected from pilferage. Unlike older luggage models, which use a key or a number combination, which may be copied or decoded, smart luggage makes use of the owner’s unique fingerprint to open the bag.
Smart Luggage – GPS Tracker
Most luggage-related anxiety occurs when waiting for bags to be delivered to an airport baggage carousel. A lot of untoward incidents can happen to your luggage. It might have been opened prior to being stowed, mistakenly picked up by other passengers or worse stolen.
It is comforting to know where the exact location of your luggage is even when it is not yet in sight. Gone are the days of waiting anxiously beside the baggage carousel. A bag installed with a GPS tracker makes its location known thereby assuring its owner that it is just a matter of time before it arrives on the carousel.
For those who have to rush to make a connecting flight, finding out whether their luggage made it to the other aeroplane can be just as stressful. The GPS tracker will put most lost luggage-related anxieties to rest.
Smart Luggage – Anti-theft Alert
The accompanying mobile application installed on the luggage owner’s mobile phone sets off an alarm when the luggage is moved for more than five seconds. This is to alert the owner that the luggage is being moved or taken to some other location without his or her consent. The alarm is triggered by an accelerometer installed in the luggage.
The technological innovations in luggage design are making travel more convenient and less stressful. Who would have thought just a few years ago that travel bags would come equipped with their own GPS trackers? It’s therefore hard to predict what more innovations will be incorporated into smart luggage in future years, but there are likely to be many.
