Kayak has introduced a patent-pending tool that uses augmented reality (AR) technology to help travellers measure the size of their carry-on bag before arriving at the airport.
“A pain point in the travel experience is that moment you begin to worry if your bag will fit in the overhead bin and now we’ve got a tool that can help,” said Kayak chief technology officer Giorgos Zacharia. “There are a lot of AR applications that are fun – but this one was designed to be truly useful for travellers.”
To measure your carry-on luggage, travellers open a flight search in the Kayak app and click “new bag measurement tool”. They will then be prompted to scan the floor (this helps calibrate measurements) and then move their camera around the bag to capture its size.
The tool will alert them with the bag’s exact measurements (length, width and height), so they know whether it can be carried on on a flight as a carry-on, or if it needs to be checked. The tool compares baggage fee policies for all Kayak-tracked airlines in one place.
The tool is currently available in the Kayak app for all iOS devices running iOS 11.3 and up.
