This scanner could one day make moving a whole lot easier

By Krystle Vermes May 15, 2015

ARGO

ARGO video. Source: YouTube

You could have a dozen friends helping you move into a new place, but at the end of the day, unpacking is still a nightmare. A group of students at Carnegie Mellon know what it’s like, and they’ve decided to do something about it.

In partnership with Ford, a group of students dreamed up the ultimate tool to make moving easier, according to Fast Company. It’s called Argo, and it looks more like a supermarket scanner than anything else. The device would log everything you pack, and it’ll catalog it all for the utmost organization. Once the time comes to unpack, you’ll know exactly where everything is.

It all begins as soon as you mount Argo on the corner of a cardboard box. Once it’s in place, it uses a camera to scan items as you put them into the box, placing them in a digital inventory as you go. After the box is full, the scanner will begin to dispense packing tape, which has a special tag defining the contents inside.

The labels light up when they are selected, and their information can be accessed via tablet using an Argo app. With a tablet, a moving specialist will have all of your inventory and moving information at his or her fingertips. The Argo tags will let your movers know where your boxes should be placed in your new abode.

Beyond the scanner, the students came up with some new tech. Argo will also come with an interactive card (which looks like a see-through credit card). This little item will house all of your inventory data, allowing you to communicate with movers and monitor the entire moving process remotely. When you’re done, you can use the card to pay your movers and start enjoying your new home.

Argo is still just a concept right now, but we can only hope it will be on the market before we have to start packing up boxes for our next move.

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Krystle Vermes is a professional writer, blogger and podcaster with a background in both online and print journalism. Her…

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