Scenario:Freddy Forgetful keeps losing his hat, umbrella, pen, scarf, etc. If it's not physically attached to him, Freddy puts it down in a public place and walks off without it. The only thing Freddy doesn't leave lying around is the cell phone in his pocket.
Idea:Make Freddy a cell phone application that (1) tracks whether a tracking tag is within a 10 foot radius (2) alerts Freddy when the tag is outside the 10 foot radius. Put a tag on Freddy's hat. Now, if Freddy leaves his hat somewhere, his phone will tell him to go back and get it before he gets very far.
Please help Freddy keep track of his stuff!
P.S.: Freddy's phone has Bluetooth. Freddy understands that Bluetooth can wirelessly detect things and junk. Could Bluetooth help make the tracking system Freddy needs to remember his hat?
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sounds really do-able, but I can't imagine a hat would be worth the trouble.
If it's bluetooth, you'd have to sync to the hat? would the hat have a battery to charge?
If you say not bluetooth, use RFID, then I say I don't think bluetooth can work for RFID (already an entry on this site)and if it did, your phone couldn't radiate enough to go one foot, no-way for ten. And it would have to be radiating all of the time.
Maybe this (as bluetooth, not RFID) would be good for a bag of golf clubs or a laptop or some other expensive thing...but I lose hats all of the time, no-biggee.
Thanks for the imput, hrench.
There is already an entry like this called "Bluetooth/RFID tracker" or something like that. I posted this idea because I'm not hung up on what technology you use. Bluetooth, RFID, moonbeams, gamma rays, star power, swamp gas reflecting off Venus - I don't care how you do it, I just want to see it done.
Rooting around online I found this which is basically what I'm looking for, tho there's been no progress on it since 2004 from what I can see. It looks like it was put on hold for the same reason you mentioned, hrench - the technology isn't small or cheap enough yet.
But forget the limitations of reality. Let's dream up a way to do this!
In case you don't want to read the whole thing, the salient bits were
"In the not-so-distant future, your wristwatch could stop you if you try to run out the door without the necessities you need for the day, like your keys, wallet or cell phone."
"'At the heart of this is the idea that tagging objects is a good thing to do, that some useful consumer applications could come out of it,' Borriello said. 'It doesn't have to be just for supply-chain issues.'"
University of Washington News, Oct. 6, 2004