

StickNFind – Bluetooth Powered ultra small Location Stickers - MaxGfeller
http://www.indiegogo.com/sticknfind

======
hmottestad
I sometimes wonder why a big company that has been doing this for years needs
to use something like indiegogo to get customers to pay up front for a product
that isn't in manufacturing yet.

Also. I think it's a really cool idea and I want one. I would use one to
secure a suitcase on a bus from getting nicked when they stop to let someone
off.

~~~
bemmu
You could prototype a variety of product ideas and let the customers guide you
on what to work on, instead of committing to an idea right away that might not
get any traction once it is released.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Isn't that what focus groups are for?

~~~
amccloud
Getting someone to commit cash is better than someone only saying they like a
product.

------
unwind
Pretty cool.

I missed details on how the pairing works, for privacy reasons it seems
desirable that the tags are locked to (preferably a set of) cell phones.

Some more information about the battery would be nice too, what counts as
"usage" for the tag exactly, and do they expose any idea of the battery's
state? It would be nice to know that a tag is nearing it's projected end-of-
battery, I guess.

Also didn't much enjoy the example with tagging the wife's car. Bleh.

~~~
pavel_lishin
My first thought was, "I'd plant one in my boss's shoe, so I'd always know
when he was on his way over," and realize that that's probably just about as
weird and distrust-based as the wife example.

------
lukeholder
I have always wanted a 'google' for your house to find things. Search: "ruby
on rails book" would return: "Bedroom 1 North Corner." Search: "keys" would
return: "Laundry Shelf". Also: "wallet" would return "John's Lounge room,
click to see directions"

These are one step closer.

~~~
dave1010uk
Triangulation should be possible with 3 or more Bluetooth sensors. Would be a
nice project to re-purpose old Android phones for.

~~~
davorak
Triangulation should be possible by combining the bluetooth with gps or the
accelerometer.

------
54mf
Love this idea, but as I understand it, their iOS app will be rejected unless
they go through the MFi Program licensing process. Apple doesn't allow open
access to the Bluetooth stack for anything besides audio hardware. Hope they
have someone taking care of that, I don't see any mention of it in their sales
pitch.

Also, I really hope some of that money goes towards hiring a designer to
polish their apps and branding. They certainly have the tech side covered, but
style goes a long way. See: Nest.

~~~
frankus
That's one of the coolest "features" of Bluetooth LE: Apple has decided that
the risks to battery life and overall system integrity are low enough with BLE
that they've left it quite wide open from an app-developer perspective.
There's even an officially-supported background mode.

It remains to be seen exactly how far they are willing to go with unregistered
protocols and custom hardware, but this type of "electronic leash" is an
officially blessed protocol, so there should be no issues with their app.

~~~
54mf
Oh wow! I stand corrected, very useful to know. Looks like these folks are
even smarter than I thought.

Still hope they tune up the design, though. Even beyond aesthetics, the
usability leaves a lot to be desired.

------
AdamTReineke
FYI, if anybody from IndieGoGo reads comments here, with IE10 on first page
load it says I'm using IE6 and the browser is not supported. Refreshing clears
this message.

------
hmexx
Regarding: 1:25...

They should be able to use the gyro/accelerometer to give their radar
'direction' as well no? You would just need to move around slightly for it to
combine the data with the BT signal distance.

Guess it depends on the BT distance resolution.

~~~
zizzer
Unfortunately a gyro and accelerometer would only be able to provide the
orientation of the device, not its location relative to the phone.

~~~
hmexx
Yeah, but the gyro/accelerometer could provide short movement measurements,
no? IF you combine that with the distance measurement you get from the BT
device, you should be able to figure out the direction to the BT device?

~~~
zizzer
For simple dead reckoning you'd need to add a magnetometer into the mix as
well, otherwise there's no way to know which direction the sensors are facing
relative to anything else.

This would at least give you a compass heading that you could use when
integrating the accelerometer data to give some kind of course over time.

It'd be pretty unreliable though and add a lot of cost.

~~~
hmexx
Still not sure why any of this would add cost. it all happens on the iphone
which already has these sensors. If you can tell in which direction the iphone
is moving thanks to gyro/magno/accelo AND you have a distance from BT device
of reasonable resolution, you should be able to figure out the location of the
device you are tracking with small movements of the iphone.

I'm not great at geometry but I figure it should be possible. Not sure about
accuracy though.

~~~
zizzer
I was talking about adding the sensors to the bluetooth sticker device, that's
why it'd add cost.

The sensors in your phone won't help to work out where the sticker is. The
bluetooth receiver in it is built to detect signals from any direction, so
even if you rotate your phone, that doesn't help to work out which direction
the signals are arriving from.

~~~
hmexx
Don't think you are understanding what I am suggesting.

If you know the movement of the phone, you can determine which direction of
movement causes the largest increase in signal strength change. So the app
would be basically doing what you do to find something (let me move this way,
oh I'm colder, I should go the other way) but at a higher spatial and temporal
resolution.

------
darknoon
There's a lot of cool stuff going on with bluetooth-le. I can see these having
other uses besides just finding your stuff. You could use a bunch of these as
a primitive location service inside a building.

They're still a bit expensive, but I'm hoping the price will approach $1 each
in a couple years.

------
dholowiski
I wonder if they used Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter because of the new
rules that you can't tell people they are pre-ordering for something that
doesn't exist yet?

------
brador
Could this be done with RFID tags?

~~~
dhlabs
they would have to be active rfid tags. i've been using some active tags from
<http://goo.gl/DkZkB> for vehicle home/away detection for the past 5 years.
they aren't quarter sized, but they're in the glove box out of sight. they
work well.

i'm also using a network of hacked seagate dockstars w/ bluetooth usb dongles
hidden around the house to detect which part of the house our cellphones are
in.

i'm already plotting what i can use these stickers for :)

