Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#2The estimote stickers are pretty cool. However, I notice they have a battery life of one year, at $12.50 a sticker ($99 for a pack of 10 + $25 in shipping) it is starting to get close to where I can imagine buying a set. If only they had some sort of solar recharging, or ability to pop in a new battery for a few bucks.
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#3Isn't this basically Tile? https://www.thetileapp.com/
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#4I'm still waiting for the energy-harvesting, no-battery-required, versions to hit the market .. seems the technology (BTLE) is out there, but its just waiting for someone to have the balls to mass-manufacture them ..
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#5Isn't this basically Tile? https://www.thetileapp.com/
Looks like the same idea, I'm pretty disappointed that Tile is only for iOS. Looks like a good implementation of the idea in this article.
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#6I'm still waiting for the energy-harvesting, no-battery-required, versions to hit the market .. seems the technology (BTLE) is out there, but its just waiting for someone to have the balls to mass-manufacture them ..
It is surprisingly difficult to get small and cheap enough solar cells (with high enough voltage) in small/medium volume. And then there's the hassles of rechargeable batteries (safety, shipping).
And of course, what if you lose your item indoors or in a bag or something?
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#7I'm still waiting for the energy-harvesting, no-battery-required, versions to hit the market .. seems the technology (BTLE) is out there, but its just waiting for someone to have the balls to mass-manufacture them ..
Me too, but I think we'll have to keep waiting. I was one of these people who "thought I had the balls" to use piezo using this chip: http://www.linear.com/solutions/1506
Not only did this not sustain enough current, but taking up more space (doubling the size of my board) also hurt it to the point of it being too clunky (e.g. See linqet http://m.connectedly.com/linquet-review-smart-tracking-devic...)
Believe it or not, BTLE isn't a holy grail for power, batteries are still a better bet when it comes to long life. One method that might work is inductive charging, which is what the pebblebee dragon does (http://www.pebblebee.com/products/bluetooth-dragon). Also notice how big the pebblebee is too- but that's because it has many other sensors.
But yeah, there are several devices in this business, and they are all trying to do a variety of things, and energy harvesting just isn't cutting it at the moment.
I really don't think it's a matter of balls ;P
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#8Isn't this basically Tile? https://www.thetileapp.com/
Looks like the same idea, I'm pretty disappointed that Tile is only for iOS. Looks like a good implementation of the idea in this article.
I think tile will come out with an android client seeing how an android engineer is on their careers page.
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#9For the iphone at least the problem is apple will not approve apps that try to discover beacons. Identifiers must be baked into the application, which greatly limits their utility.
Re: Nearables: Why a global lost-and-found network is finally viable
#10Thanks for the thorough description. Could we simplify this by replacing the beacons with a sticker that says "if found email DS7-4BD-62A@lostfound.org" and the rest of the flow begin through email? Much lower barriers with almost all of the same results.