Loc8tor: Finder of the Lost Item

Everyone has had the following aggravating situation. You need to get away for that important meeting or are late for an appointment, but to save your life you cannot remember where you put those car keys. You hunt around the house for anxious minutes while you get later and later for that appointment. If it’s not the keys, then it’s your wallet, or purse, or glasses, or anything that you have to have and can’t find.

Loc8tor is a new product that should make this problem a thing of the past. The technology, just now available in Great Britain, consists of a hand held device and tiny, unobtrusive tags. The tags are placed on items that one wants to keep track of, such as keys, wallets, purses, lap top computers, cell phones, or any other item.

If an item is missing, then the tag acts as a kind of homing device. The hand held device will use audio and visual prompts to place one in the right direction to where the item is located. It can find a lost item up to six hundred feet away. The signal is multi directional, which means it can provide guidance up and down, as well as left and right. Obstructions such as walls or clothing may reduce that range, however.

Another feature the Loc8tor has is the alert feature. The alert feature will send a signal to the hand held device if a protected item is taken beyond a designated area. This feature can also be used to keep track of pets and children.

The Loc8tor can track up to twenty four tagged items at a time. Tags are places on items either with a key ring type loop or an adhesive strip. The tags run on 2 LR54 batteries and the handheld on 2 AAA batteries. Battery life depends on use, of course, and the handheld will warn you when a battery on a tag is about to go out.

Each tag can be personalized so that it will show up on the hand held device as-for example-Wallet or Cell Phone. The tags will only work with the hand held device to which it is programmed. The hand held device of the Loc8tor weighs about two and a half ounces. Special tags with a panic alert mode, say for a child, are also available.

If one loses the hand held device, all one needs is one’s own panic alert tag. Press it and the hand held device will sound an alert that will help one locate it.

The Loc8tor can be upgraded to allow for asset protection of up to six thousand items. This feature will allow businesses to keep track of assets such as computers and cut down on employee theft. It will allow a Loc8tor device to sound an alert if a protected item is moved through a secure zone such as a doorway or loading dock.

The Loc8tor Company has announced that the product will be available in Great Britain in March, 2006, the United States in May, 2006, and in other countries thereafter.