Bring Civility to Travel with Easey-2-Pick

Israel In Our Day Listen online: http://frontpagejerusalem.com/site/index.php

Reported by Shalle McDonald
Written by Kasey Barr

We can thank Israeli innovation for many of our modern, life improving, technical gadgets upon which so many of us rely today – including the cell phone, disk-on-key storage devices and more. Recently Israel 21C listed “Israel’s top ten must have gadgets.” Among the ten was a revolutionary travel device called, “Easy-2-Pick.” Front Page featured this device as it was being developed in 2008, today Easy-2-Pick is now available for purchase and is a “must have,” at least among frequent flyers.

Retired IDF colonel Yoav Ben-David and his partner Zvi Kanor from American Express Travel in Tel Aviv have come up with an electronic device to connect passengers to their luggage through radio frequency and thus avoiding the unpleasant push and shove that comes when weary travelers expend their last bit of strength to wrestle humans, machines and the countless lot of black suitcases to secure their personal possessions.

Easy-2-Pick is an electronic luggage tag about the size of a credit card which transmits to a small, circular receiver carried by the passenger. When the luggage tag is within 12-15 meters of the receiver it begins to transmit a signal alerting the traveler that his luggage is nearby.

The idea came to Ben-David when, like so many other Israelis, he faced a situation he was sure that modern technology could solve with the right innovative thinking.

“Passengers were pushing each other and there was total chaos,” he recalled in an interview with Israeli press. “I thought for sure there had to be a better way of waiting for one's luggage, without the stress.”

And so he and Kanor set out to work with the Israeli electronics industry to come up with a transmitter and receiver that would work on a special algorithm.

“The first step was getting the credit-card-sized transmitter to 'talk' to its receiver, a circular device that fits neatly in-hand. The next step was to get different ones to talk to different receivers,” Kanor told Israel21C, allowing for a time when many travelers will opt for this technology. They also had to work with Airports in order to transmit at a frequency that would not interfere with airport infrastructure.

Today the technology is ironed out and all a traveler has to do is attach a smart tag to his suitcase and keep the remote in your pocket or purse. Once the traveler is in the baggage claim area, the technology works at a distance up to 60 feet away. It is possible to sit back, relax and wait for the remote to signal you with beeps, flashes and vibrations. No more wading through a sea of suitcases.

Easy-2-Pick is now available online and in select stores. It retails for around 25 to 30 dollars. Traveling today can be complicated and full of frustration. While Easy-2-Pick may not make security checks less stressful, seats less cramped and boxed food a little tastier, this smart device is sure to bring more civility to your world, at least around the luggage carousel and in baggage claims across the globe.

Additional Resources:
Israel21C - www.israel21c.org/technology/an-end-to-luggage-hell
www.gearlog.com/2008/07/easy2pick_looks_to_make_air_tr.php