How You Can Make Your Bag Text You When It’s Lost

The Trakdot is destined to be the coolest travel device invented since the release of the Ostrich Pillow (which is probably also the weirdest travel device ever invented).

The Trakdot is a device the size of a deck of cards that you stick in your bag before you board. Then, when United inevitably sends your bag to Duluth while you head to Fort Lauderdale, the Trakdot will text or email you its location using an embedded radio receiver. Though GPS is more accurate (the Trakdot will tell you where your bag is within a 30-foot radius), using a radio receiver instead is cheaper and uses less power than GPS does (it runs on a pair of AA batteries for up to a month).

And in case you were concerned the engineers didn’t think of everything, the Trakdot even turns itself on periodically mid-flight and, if it detects that it’s still flying, it will turn itself off to conserve power.

Come April, 2013, you can pick up your own Trakdot for $49.99, with a one-time $8.99 activation fee and $12.99 annual service fee. Phone charges to your airliner’s lost baggage department not included.

[Trakdot]

Posted on February 06, 2013 by Matt Stabile