Loksak makes RFID shielding bags

MWC 2013: Waterproof or radproof, take your pick

Mar 15, 2013 by

Loksak logoIf you need a ziplock bag that is waterproof to 60M, a Faraday cage bag for your devices, or both, Loksak can help. They have two products, a waterproof clear bag and a radiation proof shiny one in many convenient sizes.

This is by no means a hard concept to grasp, it is all about implementation details. The waterproof bag is called the aLoksak, the radiation proof version is called the Shieldsak, but there is no product that does both. That said, the engineers out there can probably figure out how to put one inside the other to get the same net effect. These two products and some minor variants thereof are what Loksak makes.

Loksak's aLoksak and Shieldsak

These are the bags in question

Making a ziplock bag waterproof is easy enough, making it really waterproof to 60M, reusable, and durable is a bigger challenge. With the aLoksak, you can use electronics through it, at least those with buttons or capacitive touch screens, and at least the one I was handed at MWC does both as promised. The Motorola RAZR i that I was testing lived through a torture test in Spain, but the sink in my hotel room instrumented immersion checker in SemiAccurate’s highly sophisticated fluid dynamics test laboratory didn’t quite get to the full 60M depth.

The other product, Shieldsak, is quite a bit more interesting. This silver velcro bag is a two layer Faraday cage, and Loksak really thought the design out. If you look at the top, you can see that you have to roll the opening a few times before it will seal. Since three of the sides are factory sealed presumably correctly, the correct functioning of the device is user dependent. The sealing mechanism forces you to roll it right so you can’t both screw up and have it close. Quite an elegant design.

What Loksak does is far from rocket science. They make bags that seal right against liquids or radiation, and that is all they do. You can get a 3-pack of Loksaks starting under $8, and the Shieldsak starts at under $65, both for the smallest sizes. Not rocket science, but very useful to have around, especially with the cost of cell phones and the ubiquity of hidden RFID tags.S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate