They’ve designed a ‘smart suitcase’ that follows its owner, giving their invention the name ‘Follow me Suitcase’.
It could mean that lost luggage and carrying heavy bags would become a thing of the past.
Student Ralph Shalhoub is one of the teenagers involved in the project. He says it was after a trip to Dubai that they came up with the concept.
“We are a team of five people and we invented a suitcase that follows you without the need to push it. We had the idea when we were at Dubai’s airport and saw how people were having trouble carrying their heavy suitcases. This is what led us to create this suitcase,” he said.
The Lebanese students’ innovation has sensors and an infrared system and the owner wears an anklet which enables the case to follow its user.
The suitcase, which rolls on a board has already attracted attention, and they’ve have won an award for their project.
“We travelled to Kuwait for an international competition by IFIA (International Federation of Inventors’ Associations) and there were 450 projects from 30 countries. We won the gold medal and the title of the best invention of the year for all ages where the average age for all competitors was like 30 years old, we are only 16 years old and nonetheless we won the gold medal,” said another of the young inventors Mark Gharios.
The design uses a central processing unit (CPU) which is commonly known as the ‘brains’ of the computer. The CPU carries out the stored instructions of a specific programmer.
‘Follow Me Suitcase’ – created by Shalhoub, Gharios and their team members Alain Abou Rashed, Maxim Haddad and Joseph Zakher – uses GPS positioning and a Global System for Communication (GSM), with a sim-card, alerting the owner of the suitcase’s location on their mobile.
It’s also equipped with an HD camera and infra-red sensors. The user can control the movements through a mobile app, that includes functions such as ‘Follow Me’, ‘Pause’ and ‘Manual Control’.
The first prototype of the suitcase was presented at the American University of Beirut’s technology fair earlier in 2015. A second prototype of the same invention, accommodating a larger CPU, won a gold medal and two prizes at iENA (International trade fair for ideas-invention-new products) in Nuremberg, Germany.
The team’s supervisor and teacher Sadeq Barq was full of praise for his students’ work.
“If you are an architect, an inventor or hold a PHD in any science nowadays, you will need to prove your idea theoretically before starting to implement it. However, it is not the case here especially that they are still young and have high ambitions so they can dream of things that do not exist yet. We supervise them and discover that they are actually creating things that had not been invented before,” he said.
The team of young innovators now hope to attract funding and take their product to market and to secure a national and international patent. (Reuters)