Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Oh, patents! Tile tracker tags

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann 

ITRW [In the Real World] – Tracker tag technology, such as that which is for example disclosed in US2010283600, is embodied in such items as tracker Tiles by Tile Inc.

Tiles are small (approx. 2 square inches) white, tile-looking, Bluetooth®-enabled devices with an embedded one-year lithium cell CR battery, a small microprocessor and an application that executes on the tile. Thus, the tiles are designed to connect and periodically sync wirelessly via Bluetooth® communication protocol to your cell phone, where a proprietary Tile Inc app is downloaded. Using the app, you can thus call your tagged valuable by pressing on its Tile icon. This will cause the tag to beep at 90 dB, that is, loud enough for you to hear it even when it is hidden under a pile of linens!  

Otherwise, if the tagged item is outside of the100-feet radius of your Bluetooth® range, then you can access the location where it was last synched to the cell phone and the signal strength was recorded.  And if it is your phone that is lost, then you can double press on any one of the other Tiles that you own to make your Iphone or Android phone beep! Or you can use another device to make it ring, even when it is turned off. And finally, the app also uses Crowd GPS which means that it allows you to connect with an extended Tiler network, so that perhaps another Tile app, belonging to someone else can sync with your missing tagged item to show you where it is located.

One of the jingles for Tile Inc., tiled objects, sums it up: Your device can run away but it cannot hide!

So there you have it: a small, 1-year charged tracker tag that you can attach to your indispensables -- your keys, your wallet, your glasses, your bike or even your pooch—to assist you in retrieving all your misplaced items or finding your furry friends, and to prevent you from losing them.   

Reference
Tile Inc.
https://www.thetileapp.com

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