Electronics

Hop! suitcase automatically follows its user

Hop! suitcase automatically follows its user
Hop! promises to free travelers from carrying their luggage
Hop! promises to free travelers from carrying their luggage
View 6 Images
Hop! can be controlled with an iOS app
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Hop! can be controlled with an iOS app
Hop! sports a dual caterpillar track-type system on its underside
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Hop! sports a dual caterpillar track-type system on its underside
Hop! is manufactured to meet airline cabin space requirements, measuring 55 x 40 x 20 cm (roughly 21 x 15 x 8 inches)
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Hop! is manufactured to meet airline cabin space requirements, measuring 55 x 40 x 20 cm (roughly 21 x 15 x 8 inches)
Hop! promises to free travelers from carrying their luggage
4/6
Hop! promises to free travelers from carrying their luggage
Hop! sports a dual caterpillar track-type system on its underside
5/6
Hop! sports a dual caterpillar track-type system on its underside
Hop! contains three receivers which communicate with an app running on the traveler’s smartphone, via Bluetooth
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Hop! contains three receivers which communicate with an app running on the traveler’s smartphone, via Bluetooth
View gallery - 6 images

As any frequent flyer knows, hauling around a passport, carry-on luggage and suitcase while navigating through an airport can be a real hassle, and the situation is made worse if the traveler in question has any physical health issues. Madrid-based designer Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez has come up with an ingenious solution to this issue: a smart carry-on suitcase named Hop! which follows the traveler around automatically.

Hop! contains three receivers which communicate with an app running on the traveler’s smartphone, via Bluetooth. The Bluetooth data is processed by a micro-controller which calculates the position of the smartphone it is tasked to follow. The same micro-controller also directs a dual caterpillar track-type system on the underside of the smart-suitcase.

Hop! contains three receivers which communicate with an app running on the traveler’s smartphone, via Bluetooth
Hop! contains three receivers which communicate with an app running on the traveler’s smartphone, via Bluetooth

Hop! can be configured to follow a number of other Hop! units in a line, and should the smartphone signal be lost or interrupted somehow, the user will receive an alert, and the suitcase locks itself. In an age of increasingly security-conscious airports, there’s some obvious issues to an automatic hands-off carry-on ambling around an airport, but should the relevant authorities allow it, one can imagine such a device proving indispensable for disabled travelers, and convenient for the rest of us.

The smart luggage is manufactured to meet most airline cabin space requirements, measuring 55 x 40 x 20 cm (roughly 21 x 15 x 8 inches). Further to this, Gonzales states that the internal mechanism of his device doesn’t increase the weight of the case significantly, though we’ve received no hard figures on this.

While Hop! is still in development, Gonzalez tells us that he plans to mature his prototype and complement it with a larger suitcase, with a view to eventually bringing both to market.

The promo video below gives a sense of what using Hop! would be like.

Source: Ideactionary via Ubergizmo

hop! the following suitcase

View gallery - 6 images
22 comments
22 comments
jake61241
I'm thinking that by trying to get this through airport security is probably gonna be the equivalent of flat-out ASKING for a cavity search
Marcus Carr
Phone battery dies, case locks itself immediately before customs checkpoint, two hours lost while explaining wanky technology and asking for a charger as yours is in the bag... I'll carry my stuff - I'd have to on the escalators anyway.
Tysto
Looks about as stable as a peanut butter sandwich on its side.
Pikeman
I'll just pull my wheeled bag by a cord clipped to my belt.
Pulsar
No matter how the technology improves, it will always add unwanted extra-weight... for what? For increasing risks of suitcase robbery... how long before you realise that your luggage is not following you any more? Or security may even consider it to be an unattended luggage just because something blocked the wheels and you kept on walking...
Besides, unless you add big 4x4 wheels to go up and down stairs, you will still need to lift up your luggage, precisely when you wish you would not. Pulling a luggage on flat surface has never been tiring. This is really gadgety to me...
Riaanh
Great to see one of the fruit's of the brilliant Terry Pratchett imagination finally being created.
See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucidragon/131543057/ http://www.terrypratchett.co.uk/
Steve Lane
Reminds me of Terry Pratchetts walking chest in his Disc World series. I would want one of these with articulated feet.
Mohd Mat Desa
Hilarious.... what happen if you climb stair... or someone snatch it.....
jochair
robotic devices are an obvious security problem, the suitcase must never be farther then 2 mr from its owner, it may not make independent decisions such as locking itself, that must be controled by the owner. As a disabled traveler myself ,I love this idea.
Bruce H. Anderson
Frequent flyers everywhere are snickering.
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