Comments on: Bluetooth stickers help you find things when you lose them

By: laripley

laripley — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:28:00 +0000

Thanks, that information is relevant to me and addresses my concerns. Whenever I see articles about tracking devices, I am concerned if these issues are not directly addressed.

I see no need to “relax” about that, because that is one of the first things we should ALL be concerned about when there are new technologies waved around excitedly – how do they affect the situation of the most vulnerable?

Too often the default assumption is that we shouldn’t be so suspicious. Why shouldn’t we? Aren’t there a lot of vulnerable people who are abused every day in all kinds of ways? And isn’t technology complicit in that alongside everything else? Nothing makes technology by default be a neutral force.Therefore, convenience, or simple newness is not enough for me to be excited about tech unless I know it isn’t going to make things worse for people.

By: Parker McIntosh

Parker McIntosh — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:13:00 +0000

You could have an entire market for disc golfers if you could loose the light and speaker option, hopefully allowing it to be more arrow dynamic. I would love to see this, even help push it here in Austin, tx.either way, I am going to try this existing version.

By: Michelle Wood Kennedy

Michelle Wood Kennedy — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 22:40:00 +0000

Hey, if there is a battery in this sticker, everyone just has to be careful about young ones not getting ahold of it and eating it or sticking it in their mouths. Very dangerous!

By: Mohamed Ikbel Boulabiar

Mohamed Ikbel Boulabiar — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:08:00 +0000

1998 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/attarchive/bat/

By: Randall "texrat" Arnold

Randall "texrat" Arnold — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:30:00 +0000

rattypilgrim, you can only get so much out of devices this small. In order to get to appreciable stalker distances, you have to go up significantly in antenna size and power. Guess what? THOSE device already exist.

By: Randall "texrat" Arnold

Randall "texrat" Arnold — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:27:00 +0000

That distance limit tends to be a stalker dealbreaker

By: Randall "texrat" Arnold

Randall "texrat" Arnold — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Yeah, I envision MiB furtively sticking random citizens with these things. They’ll need a velcro model, too, so they can just flip them like Spider Tracers at passerby. Then they just need to make sure there’s always an agent within range of each taggee. Hmmm, new word?

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:11:00 +0000

well played, sir. my roommate is divorced, go figure.

By: Mary Barnes

Mary Barnes — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:21:00 +0000

I want it NOW! Wait, where did I put my checkbook?

By: Ipo

Ipo — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:53:00 +0000

This could change my life.

By: Nick Hayday

Nick Hayday — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:09:00 +0000

article and video both say a year….

By: nowimnothing

nowimnothing — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:49:00 +0000

I think it depends on the strength of the reader, because the RFID is just a passive chip that you bounce the signal off of. I have heard around 40′. The only problem I can think of here is triangulation. The bluetooth chip is active and can give a second reference point to help isolate the location. One reference point and ‘ping’ on an RFID ship would probably be harder to map. Also RFID is not as ubiquitous as bluetooth on smartphones.

By: Derrick Haskins

Derrick Haskins — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:43:00 +0000

Shut up and take my money!

By: Chentzilla

Chentzilla — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:11:00 +0000

Then it’s sticker time!

By: Farhan Khan

Farhan Khan — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:15:00 +0000

Wow nice technology in everybody range…

By: James Singh

James Singh — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 06:52:00 +0000

I had always wished for this! Good to know that it’s there now!

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 06:30:00 +0000

Let’s call it a gateway device. Today it’s a few tens of feet radius. Tomorrow…

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 06:24:00 +0000

Aren’t children a little large to lose sight of if they’re within 30 feet of you, which is the range of Bluetooth? I mean, if you can’t see them when they’re that close, you’re probably in a mosh pit. Or a Justin Bieber concert, so they’re already lost. Or…?

By: Rindan

Rindan — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 06:13:00 +0000

First, I never said anything about random strangers. My best friend who was stalked was stalked by a “psycho”, who was her ex-boyfriend. Anyone stalking anyone gets a solid “psycho” rating in my book.

More to the point, you are missing my point. My point is that this, from a purely technological point of view, can’t do what you fear. No one can stalk you with it. It finds stuff within a few tens of feet radius. That is it. Your stalker has to be looking at at you in order track you in which case he can just, you know, use his eyes.

More to the point, if there is someone who has that much access where they could covertly put a tag on you, and these are not that small, so I am struggling to figure out where they could hide it, without you noticing, they are close enough to get your cell phone. This glorified RFID tag can’t track you to the ends of the earth, but your cell phone can. A reasonably technologically literate person can drop a stealthed program that reports your every single move via GPS. I have such a program sitting on my phone for finding it if it is lost or stolen.

I’m not saying that your fears of stalking aren’t valid, just that this is the wrong technology to be afraid of. Your cell phone is vastly more capable and a few orders of magnitude more scary. Hell, a boring old camera is scarier and can track you better. Worrying about this glorified RFID tag is like worrying about the effects of high altitude solar radiation while you are in a crashing airplane with its wings ripped off.

By: jenius

jenius — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:55:00 +0000

doubtfull wont take off. Bluetooth will drain that battery in a matter of a day or two max

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:50:00 +0000

You said it better than I did. Thanks. I hope it gets through to some of those who feel no threat due to their skin color, gender, sexual orientation, or religion, the ones who can’t imagine being targeted by the people who look just like them.

By: wetitnpetit

wetitnpetit — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:42:00 +0000

I think these stickers are going to promote binge drinking. No longer will you have to remember where you put your keys, car, and wallet. Bottoms up!

By: Michael Crumpton

Michael Crumpton — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 04:38:00 +0000

You have another stick and find attached to your phone, and you use your spouses phone to find it.

By: laripley

laripley — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 04:32:00 +0000

Please don’t condescend. Myself and about 2/3 of all the women I know have been stalked by someone we met or had someone we dated (or married) aggressively monitor and track us. It’s quite common. I’m concerned about devices that make it easier for people to be monitored constantly by the state, corporations & employers, by “psychos” (by which you seem to mean random strangers) but also by the statistically most likely people – abusive partners (usually – from a strictly statistical standpoint again) these are men.

It would be very easy for someone whom you know casually, or whom you are trapped in an abusive relationship with, to make use of this to harass you. Monitoring where you are going, when you leave, when you return, how long you stay away, who you spend time with, these are very common acts of abusers, and this would absolutely make it easier for them.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:51:00 +0000

To me it’s the same thing as testing employees for drug use; a total abuse of power and disdain for civil rights. people who say it shouldn’t bother anyone unless they have something to hide might as well line up for their microchips now, before the rush. (semicolon alert!)

By: Drunk On NyQuil

Drunk On NyQuil — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:31:00 +0000

Seriously? They’ve been tagging company vehicles with GPS, where I work for almost 2 years, so they know where we go.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:11:00 +0000

An employer could track an employees by attaching something like this to the employee’s car or dropping it in a bag, purse, etc. A “friend” could do the same thing. Maybe this device doesn’t quite have those capabilities but you can see one coming that does.

Paranoid? No, but protective of my civil liberties and privacy and thinking the future doesn’t look too good in those respects.

By: Rindan

Rindan — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 02:28:00 +0000

Paranoid much? It has a tiny radius. Any human wearing one is going to be within easy sight of you. You also need to somehow get the tag on them. If someone is breaking into your house and putting tags on your clothing, I think you have WAY bigger problems than the fact that when you are in plain sight they can also pick you up on their hand held.

If you have a psycho stalking you, this isn’t going to make it any easier for them. Relax.

By: Peter Brunton

Peter Brunton — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 02:07:00 +0000

It was Makers indeed, and that was my first thought on seeing this article. Finally, Cory can stop all that tiresome production of actual interesting original content and get down to the real brass-tacks hard grind of endless patent suits. That’s what makes the economy tick.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 01:40:00 +0000

Exactly. And that’s not a good thing.