Patent Grant
11322052
The present invention relates generally to travel related accessories, and more particularly to a method, apparatus and kit for providing a more reliable means of locating luggage easily while traveling and more particularly to reducing the risk of loss of luggage by pairing luggage and a traveler by an easy to identify indicia and identity information.
It is estimated that lost luggage in the travel industry is about 20 million pieces per year. Recently the U.S. Department of transportation reported that the problem of lost luggage was growing. Figures for February 2007 have reached a staggering 366,000 pieces of lost luggage. These losses have increased in spite of technological advance in the travel industry. These technological advances, such as bar coding, provide for more reliable baggage handling, however they remove a more practical human interaction with regards to locating luggage and ensuring that all the luggage for a single passenger remains together.
In one approach to securing a person's belongings, Casper disclosed an under cover security wallet. This three portion portfolio system allows the traveler to organize and hold travel documents and keep them close to his person. The fist portion is connected as a flap member to the second portion, with pockets on both the inside and outside of each portion. The third hinge portion consists of several pockets, included a transparent exterior pocket. There are individual pockets sized for receiving information cards, currency, business cards, credit cards, a calculator and airline tickets.
Another approach according to Grimsley is a travel kit with a foldable multi-panel base allowing for a multi-page insert to be secured to one of two fold lines. The insert contains overlapping panels with pockets that are capable of holding items such as documents, passports, paper and coin currency, maps and credit cards. The travel kit is designed to be carried on the traveler's person.
Yet another approach according to Carp is a combination carrying case and article organizer. The article organizer consists of several sides that contain pockets for storing a multitude of personal documents and items. The sides are attached to a central upright side. The organizer can be folded in on itself and fastened closed with the fasteners on the side flaps. The organizer then fits inside the outer, larger carrying case, such as a wallet would fit into a handbag.
In another approach according to Carp, a combination carry-on luggage bag with tote bag and clutch bag is described. This combination includes four pieces. First, there is a small cocoon purse which fits inside a larger clutch bag. The clutch and cocoon bags may then be placed inside of the larger tote bag which all fits inside of the larger outer carry-on bag.
The travel products described above all offer ways in which to secure a person's documents by providing a wallet-type document holder and outer travel bags that can be carried on the traveler's person. However, these prior inventions fail to address the issue of securing travelers' possessions once they have been checked into the compartment of a plane or train or other separate area that is not within the traveler's immediate control.
As such, what is needed is a more convenient means for locating paired luggage and for rapidly identifying luggage associated with a passenger.
Disclosed herein is a kit for travelers comprising at least one document holder having at least one pocket for storage of travel related documents; said document holder having a luggage identifier code dispose thereon and readily visible; at least one tamper proof mechanism for securing luggage access to avoid tampering; and one or more luggage tags, wherein the luggage tags, the document holder, the tamper proof mechanism each have a substantially similar indicia disposed thereupon providing a visual means for associating the items together.
In one embodiment, a baggage identification locator apparatus for travelers comprises at least one document holder having at least one pocket for storage of travel related documents; said document holder having a luggage identifier code disposed thereon and readily visible; at least one tamper proof fastener for securing luggage access to avoid tampering; and one or more luggage tags, wherein the luggage tags, the document holder, the tamper proof fastener each have a substantially similar indicia disposed thereupon providing a visual means for associating the items together.
In certain aspects, the apparatus further comprises substantially similar indicia imprinted onto the document holder.
In another embodiment, the apparatus further comprises indicia utilizing easily recognizable characters associated with one or more travel profiles.
In another embodiment, the apparatus further comprises indicia utilizing easily recognizable characters associated with one or more travel profiles wherein the travel profile includes at least one luggage identifier code, at least one associated traveler indicia, and one or more sets of personalized attributes.
A method for identifying luggage comprises the following steps in any order: attaching one or more luggage tags with a predetermined unique indicia to each item of luggage; associating said luggage tags physically to each item of luggage by having a similar image or complementary shape such that a person can easily recognize the associated luggage; associating one or more traveler indicia with one or more sets of personalized attributes; associating said one or more travel attributes personalized with a travel profile; and associating said luggage tags with a travel profile.
In another embodiment, the method further comprises providing one or more tamper proof fasteners to the one or more luggage tags; associating said one or more tamper proof fasteners to one or more closed compartments of said items of luggage; providing one or more wire tie support loops for indication that said items of luggage have been opened; and severing said wire tie loop to indicate that the luggage has been opened.
In another embodiment, the method further comprises providing one or more tamper proof fasteners to the one or more luggage tags; associating said one or more tamper proof fasteners to one or more closed compartments of said items of luggage; providing one or more wire tie support loops for indication that said items of luggage have been opened; and severing said wire tie loop to indicate that the luggage has been opened wherein said luggage tags comprise one or more component pieces that fit together into a single, one piece tag.
In certain aspects, the method further comprises associating said one or more component pieces to said one or more items of luggage to form a common set of traveler indicia; and associating said common set of traveler indicia to one or more traveler profiles.
In another embodiment, the method further comprises providing one or more tamper proof fasteners to the one or more luggage tags; associating said one or more tamper proof fasteners to one or more closed compartments of said items of luggage; providing one or more wire tie support loops for indication that said items of luggage have been opened; and severing said wire tie loop to indicate that the luggage has been opened wherein said one or more component pieces fit together via a snapping mechanical interference fit locking process.
In certain aspects, the common set of traveler indicia may be matching colors. In other aspects, the common set of traveler indicia may be matching images. In certain aspects, the luggage tags may be selected from a group consisting of plastic, acrylic, vinyl, and composite resin material.
In another embodiment, one or more component pieces fit together via a hook and loop construction.
In another embodiment, the method further comprises providing a locator code associating with one or more common set of traveler indicia; providing a matching identification security checkpoint authorization means for a traveler; and matching said authorization means with a traveler profile and a common set traveler indicia.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objectives and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to be limiting. In addition, the present disclosure may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.
The embodiments of the enclosed invention introduce new systems and methods for providing baggage identification and location. In one embodiment, instructions provide a baggage identification locator system for a traveler by associating one or more indicia with a one or more travel profiles and luggage tags. The instructions include one or more modules communicating directly with a baggage identification locator computer module that provides locator and matching security checkpoint authorization services to an associated indicia and traveler profile.
Exemplary Operating Environments, Components, and Technology
In most embodiments, the system 1700 includes some type of network 1710. The network may can be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, the network 1710 can be a local area network (“LAN”), such as an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network; a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network (e.g., a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, GRPS, GSM, UMTS, EDGE, 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, Wimax, WiFi, CDMA 2000, WCDMA, the Bluetooth protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol); and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.
The system may also include one or more server computers 1702, 1704, 1706 which can be general purpose computers, specialized server computers (including, merely by way of example, PC servers, UNIX servers, mid-range servers, mainframe computers rack-mounted servers, etc.), server farms, server clusters, or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. One or more of the servers (e.g., 1706) may be dedicated to running applications, such as a business application, a Web server, application server, etc. Such servers may be used to process requests from user computers 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718. The applications can also include any number of applications for controlling access to resources of the servers 1702, 1704, 1706.
The Web server can be running an operating system including any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially-available server operating systems. The Web server can also run any of a variety of server applications and/or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java servers, business applications, and the like. The server(s) also may be one or more computers which can be capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718. As one example, a server may execute one or more Web applications. The Web application may be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such as Java®, C, C# or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting languages. The server(s) may also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase®, IBM® and the like, which can process requests from database clients running on a user computer 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718.
The system 1700 may also include one or more databases 1720. The database(s) 1720 may reside in a variety of locations. By way of example, a database 1720 may reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) one or more of the computers 1702, 1704, 1706, 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718. Alternatively, it may be remote from any or all of the computers 1702, 1704, 1706, 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718, and/or in communication (e.g., via the network 1710) with one or more of these. In a particular set of embodiments, the database 1720 may reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers 1702, 1704, 1706, 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718 may be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as appropriate. In one set of embodiments, the database 1720 may be a relational database, such as Oracle 10g, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.
The computer system 1800 may additionally include a computer-readable storage media reader 1812, a communications system 1814 (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, etc.), and working memory 1818, which may include RAM and ROM devices as described above. In some embodiments, the computer system 1800 may also include a processing acceleration unit 1816, which can include a digital signal processor DSP, a special-purpose processor, and/or the like.
The computer-readable storage media reader 1812 can further be connected to a computer-readable storage medium 1810, together (and, optionally, in combination with storage device(s) 1808) comprehensively representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information. The communications system 1814 may permit data to be exchanged with the network and/or any other computer described above with respect to the system 1800.
The computer system 1800 may also comprise software elements, shown as being currently located within a working memory 1818, including an operating system 1820 and/or other code 1822, such as an application program (which may be a client application, Web browser, mid-tier application, RDBMS, etc.). It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments of a computer system 1800 may have numerous variations from that described above. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed.
Storage media and computer readable media for containing code, or portions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in the art, including storage media and communication media, such as but not limited to volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmission of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, data signals, data transmissions, or any other medium which can be used to store or transmit the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate.
A first pocket 112 may be similar in shape to the central sheet 102 and sized to receive a document such as a passport. The first pocket 112 may be attached to the central sheet 102 by any number of standard methods such as thermal bonding, adhesive, rivets, press molding, or sewn. In the illustrated embodiment, the first pocket 112 is press molded to the central sheet 102 along two elongated sides 114 and one shorter side 116 to create a border region 118. A first pocket opening 120 for the insertion or retrieval of travel credentials is disposed parallel to side 116. The first pocket 112 may be fabricated from clear plastic, vinyl, acrylic, or any other similar clear material that allows the important document information to be visible through the first pocket 112.
As further seen in
The side of the holder apparatus 200 has graphical indicia 220 for identification of the holder 200 with additional baggage. The indicia may be any means imprinted or impressed into the holder 200 to provide for a visually recognizable image. The indicia 220 may be any image, graphic or logo that may be visually associated with other items and baggage carried by the traveler. The inventors anticipate using easily recognizable characters such as animals and plants; however other images, including personalized images may also effectuate the invention. The indicia may also be effectuated through simple matching colors or color patterns such as a rainbow. The indicia could also be of well know animal characters or easily recognizable landmarks. It would be in the spirit of this invention to utilize it by creating and employing icons and images that would appeal to travelers as well. More stylized indicia could be employed such as images or names of fictional characters or real people. This might allow others to identify a face or character with the holder 200 or associated baggage. Also, one having skill in the art could effectuate the same result by placing the indicia 416 on the backside of the back flap 430.
The embodiments of
References in the specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art to effect such feature, structure or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described. Parts of the description are presented using terminology commonly employed by those of ordinary skill in the art to convey the substance of their work to others of ordinary skill in the art.
One having skill in the art will appreciate that other security devices may be used in place of the wire tie to effectuate the same result. This list includes but is not limited to medical patient bracelets and colored concert security bracelets which act to prevent removal without destroying the bracelet itself. Additionally the indicia 512 acts to indicate visually the owner of the luggage by providing a visual indication of the associated luggage and any associated holder
Luggage tags 400 may be constructed form plastic, acrylic, vinyl or any other suitable material capable of having the indicia 616, 618, and 620 disposed thereon.
The reverse side of a tag is a name tag having a space to enter traveler's name 522, 526, 528 and contact telephone number 524, 528, and 526.
Now referring further to
One of the many unique features of the current disclosure is that by placing similar indicia on the differing aspects of the current disclosure, a traveler has increased the visibility of their luggage and has provided for a visual linking such that even untrained users may identify and associate luggage form a single traveler together. This reduces the risk of lost luggage and provides an easy means for a traveler to locate their luggage on a luggage carousel or similar device for presenting luggage to a traveler. Security requirements often entail the traveler displaying a boarding pass and photo identification at the curbside check-in, ticket counter, security checkpoints, boarding gate or other areas. With the embodiment of
According to one embodiment, each user system and all of its components are operator configurable using applications, such as a browser, including computer code run using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, System (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) and all of their components might be operator configurable using application(s) including computer code run using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, or multiple processor units. A computer program product aspect includes a machine-readable storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodiments described herein. Computer code for operating and configuring System 16 to intercommunicate and to process web pages, applications and other data and media content as described herein is preferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer code for implementing aspects of the present invention can be implemented in any programming language that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server system such as, for example, in C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).
As discussed above, embodiments are suitable for use with the Internet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks. However, it should be understood that other networks can be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.
In summary, the baggage identification locator systems and methods described herein can be seen as comprised of five parts. First, there is the travel kit apparatus which resembles a travel wallet. Second are the luggage tags portraying the traveler's personalized indicia. The luggage tags also contain the luggage identifier code (LIC), which allows the third component of the baggage identification locator systems and methods, the software, to identify and track the corresponding traveler's luggage. Tamper proof mechanisms notify the traveler that their luggage has been opened. Finally, the hardware component or computer system of the baggage identification locator systems and methods allows the software to run and also provides the infrastructure for ensuring the traveler's luggage security and location.
The above illustration provides many different embodiments or embodiments for implementing different features of the invention. Specific embodiments of components and processes are described to help clarify the invention. These are, of course, merely embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention from that described in the claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in one or more specific examples, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the invention, as set forth in the following claims.
This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/008,614, filed Jan. 10, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5560657 | Morgan | Oct 1996 | A |
| 5831531 | Tuttle | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5920053 | DeBrouse | Jul 1999 | A |
| 7151454 | Washington | Dec 2006 | B2 |
| 20040124982 | Kovach | Jul 2004 | A1 |
| 20050001041 | McCarthy | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20060225332 | Zenisek | Oct 2006 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20110094131 A1 | Apr 2011 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12008614 | Jan 2008 | US |
| Child | 12983814 | US |
