[HH] Stick-N-Find: Bluetooth object tracker

[Drew Van Zandt]

Yeah; I have half a dozen of those, they're neat.

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Drew Van Zandt
Cam # US2010035593 (M:Liam Hopkins R: Bastian Rotgeld)
Domain Coordinator, MA-003-D.  Masquerade aVST
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On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro+hhacking at gmail.com>wrote:

> I thought I wrote about these when I ran across the Kickstarter project,
> but I can't seem to find mention of them in the list archives.
>
> It's a coin sized Bluetooth transmitter that you attach to objects you
> want to be able to later find.
>
> Here's a video review:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s9j5ZP2V28
>
> Manufacturer's site:
> http://www.sticknfind.com/
>
> Looks a bit bigger than a quarter (reviewer says "two quarters
> stacked"). Runs on a lithium coin cell (CR2016) that lasts a year.
>
> The tracker also has a small speaker and an LED, both of which help you
> spot it when it is activated.
>
> Works with an iOS or Android app with a "radar" style range finder
> screen. (Requires a device that supports Bluetooth 4.0 low energy mode.)
> You can pair it with up to 20 trackers. (Reviewer notes the range finder
> distances are inaccurate. No surprise there. Also, the direction of the
> device can't actually be determined, given the single Bluetooth antenna
> on a cellphone, so the radar sweep in the app is just for show.)
>
> Has a 100 foot range.
>
> Also has a proximity alert mode, where it will alert you when you are
> either within range of the target device, or alert you when you've
> gotten out of range of a target device. So in the latter case (a mode
> they call "virtual leash"), you might stick one on a laptop, so you get
> an alarm if someone walks off with it.
>
> The cost is $50 for 2 trackers.
>
> I guess that makes sense for tracking an expensive item within a 100'
> radius or something you lose often. But the cost and limit of 20 paired
> trackers is going to narrow the scope of how this can be applied.
>
> It's really too bad the technology and physics don't allow you to do
> this sort of thing with RFID tags, which can be had for pennies.
>
>  -Tom
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