In our contemporary age, a stolen wallet brings two layers of predicament, with the first one obviously entailing the losing of your hard earned money. But the second one is associated more with our current financial technologies and amenities, and thus pertains to the cumbersome process of hastily cancelling your credit and debit cards. But what if there was a wallet that can’t be technically ‘lost’? Well a Dutch design team has put forth their solution somewhere on those lines – in the form of the ultra-slim Ekster wallet that comes with its system of a wireless tracker.
This incorporated tracker connects through Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, thus having the capacity to synchronize with your preferred mobile device. This is accompanied by a dedicated Protag app via which you can locate (or ring) your wallet by using the map function. Simply put, the map can indicate the distance between you and your wallet (in case you lost your wallet). This is complemented by the app’s additional ability to alert the user when they are out of range, i.e., moved away at a significant distance from the wallet. This crucial notification comprises the information of the specific time and place when the user left behind the wallet.
Interestingly, the designers have also put in a mode which could potentially help you to retrieve your lost wallet. This is done via a GPS network that gets updated when another Protag user comes in proximity to the lost wallet. On receiving the update, the concerned party can then contact this user to retrieve the wallet. Furthermore, the Ekster wallet can also aid in those bothersome scenarios when you have lost your phone somewhere around the house. During these annoying times, you can simply activate the tracking button on your wallet, and the phone would subsequently ring even if it’s in silent mode.
Other nifty features include an aluminum cardholder that can block out signals, thus preventing wireless data theft from your cards that have embedded RFID/NFC technology. This is complemented by spring-loaded mechanism that suavely ejects the card on just pressing a button. And at last but not the least, the Ekster wallet is also integrated with an inconspicuous USB charger for recharging the tracker battery (whose life is touted to last for over 6 months on a single charge).
Currently, the Ekster wallets are going through their crowdfunded Kickstarter campaign, which has already surpassed its initial goal. So in case you are interested, there are two models available for backing – the Senate (with RFID/NFC protection for 5 cards) starting from $75 for early birds; and the Parliament (with more storage capacity) starting from $89 for early birds.
