Mobile Technology

Button TrackR adds crowd sourced tracking to search for lost objects

Button TrackR is a coin sized device to track objects via a smartphone app
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Keys can be hooked to the Button TrackR
Keys can be hooked to the Button TrackR
Button TrackR introduces Crowd Sourced Tracking
Button TrackR introduces Crowd Sourced Tracking
When an item is left behind somewhere, the device broadcasts a unique ID








The video pitch below shows the Button TrackR at work.

Source: Indiegogo

Button TrackR

Craig Jennings
Déjà vu? I swear we've seen this before. TrackR wallet, yep. StickNFind, yep. Sigh.... Why not talk a little more about the "low power" BlueTooth (BLE) or Bluetooth SMART but now just Bluetooth from V4.0 onward. Since plenty of us don't have S3's or 4s's onward and still rock the shorter range BlueTooth. Actually, Mr Herbert. Make one to stick to my S2 which talks to the others via BLE and to my S2 V3 so I too can play lost and found silly buggers.
This is a copy of SticknFind. I ordered via their website and product works well with my iphone. The advantage of sticknfind is that you get a radar with zoom levels, that can actually help you find lost items (as long as you remember to stick a sticknfind to them). I have used it and it can help me find any object within my house. The Trackr seems to have no radar in order to locate objects. It only supports an advance leash. Why is this news? This is just a copy...
I can only think of a couple of situation where this would be useful and justify the cost of power source. It would be dropping the keys while trying to open the car door in snowed down or water logged parking lot. In either situation one would want to find the keys ASAP. Would this work in this situation? I doubt very much. Does not indicate the kind of power source involved. In any case would it not have to be switched on all the time to be found ?? Try finding run down handset of your cordless phone !
Sergio Rivera
Not a copy of SticknFind. This uses crowdsourcing to locate the stuff which is a very smart concept and blending of resources. SticknFInd is 1 to 1 user-stuff interaction. Button Tracker instead enables the user of the app to send notifications without even know they are doing it. I just cannot imagine the potential for the missing people problem, lost luggage at the airports, lost stuff in hotels, you name it... Your stolen car will be easily found and thieves will have to invent I-DONT-KNOW-WHAT-IN-HELL kind of technology for not getting caught. All the people using WAZE will have eventually this device in their cars. Bye Bye lojack SO-DAMN-EXPENSIVE services. This is a very disruptive mix of concepts. Congratulations to the creators! My most humble congrats. I am officially impressed.
Anne Ominous
But I question the the effectiveness of "crowdsourcing" in this context. It SEEMS like a good idea, until you think it through. How many people are going to be RUNNING the Button TrackR software on their smartphones all the time? And if they aren't, how are they going to detect one? Crowdsourcing only works if the crowd is actually looking. You can achieve almost the same thing with printed signs on telephone poles.
Stan Sieler
Andrew: the "crowd sourcing" for finding objects is a differentiator, albeit one with limitations (thanks, Anne!). It's an interesting option, and I tried to back it ... but the creators seem to have chosen to not accept PayPal, so they're not getting my money. (Also, at least on a Mac / Safari, their payment page disallows a credit card number from being *pasted* in ... I can type it, and I can paste it in other fields, but *not* in the CCN field ... weird!) (And, Indiegogo's software is refusing to let me contact the creators, even though one is *supposed* to be able to submit private comments without paying :)
S Michael
This is a product that hasn't quite reached maturity. Needs to be made smaller, and longer range. I suggest a process like lojack and other property recovering systems. Maybe a phone connection that allows the owner to ping where the item is located and then zeros in via bluetooth when you get closer. Also need to allow law enforcement to temporary have access to your code or serial number allowing pinging and locating. Much innovation needs to be done before it is worth the money.
Since Waze is also croud-sourced, I'd like to see this linked with them since they're already established. How about it, Chris?