AirBolt travel lock offers smart features and keyless access

To some, air travel is a carefree jaunt without a single ripple in the experience. But to others, it can feel like rushing through a gauntlet of checklists, lines, and gates, with the potential for impromptu anxiety at any given moment. One company is looking to make the luggage-laden travel process a little bit easier with the AirBolt smart travel lock, which is designed with Bluetooth connectivity and a host of useful functions to keep bags secure and accounted for.

Keys can be lost and combinations forgotten, which is why you can find more smart locks today than ever before. With smartphones attached to the hip or in our hot little hands, we have keyless entry into homes, keyless bicycle locks that can't be picked, and keyless padlocks for anything that needs smart security. Given the amount of travel that happens daily worldwide, a smart luggage lock like AirBolt certainly makes sense.

AirBolt is designed to pair with your smartphone and, so long as it's in range, unlock with the press of a button. It features the latest Bluetooth 4.2 chipset with AES 128-bit encryption for security, and users can opt to enter a pin code as an added layer of protection, just in case someone else might have access to your phone. Should a connected device run out of power, users can perform a manual unlock through a backup button code. And since AirBolt was developed with travel in mind, its creators expect it to be fully compliant with and accepted by the TSA.

One unique aspect about AirBolt is that it's designed to let users electronically revoke TSA master key access. Those concerned about luggage handling can find some added peace of mind when traveling to/from countries that don't use TSA standards. And if AirBolt is surreptitiously opened by a TSA master key, the mobile app maintains detailed unlock logs so users will always know.

Because travel can be frantic, the AirBolt is designed to alert when it has gone out of range. Either through app notifications and/or the lock's built-in buzzer, users will be reminded if they're about to leave luggage behind. Or if someone is trying to take off with it. Additionally, location tracking will be made possible through a crowdsourced GPS network (which essentially means that the last-known location of misplaced luggage will be registered whenever an AirBolt or partner app user passes by, and that information anonymously forwarded to the AirBolt-secured baggage owner).

Now at the fifth prototype stage of development, the AirBolt is currently the subject of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, having raised 111 percent of its AU$50,000 goal in seven days, with another 37 days left to go.

An early bird pledge of AU$60 (about $47) for one AirBolt is still shown as available at the time of writing. If production, testing, and quality assurance go according to schedule, shipping is expected to start in August, 2016.

Check out the video below for an entertaining overview of the AirBolt's features.

Sources: AirBolt, Kickstarter