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ADD/ADHD In The News: |
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| Wall Street Journal, 10/16/02 |
| TINY NEW GIZMOS HELP PEOPLE FIND MISPLACED ITEMS |
| by Andrea Petersen |
| "The art of losing isn't hard to master," wrote the poet Elizabeth Bishop.
Now, new technology aims to make the task of finding -- house keys, remote
controls, wallets, even a wayward pet -- just as easy. A stream of new products is hitting the market, and more are in development, to help solve one of life's biggest annoyances: the seemingly daily quest to locate those everyday objects that always seem to go missing just when you're in the biggest hurry. One company is even working on gadgets that prevent things from going MIA in the first place. Lorrie Garbarz used to misplace her keys a couple of times every week. "I've been late for many meetings over it," says the 23-year-old real-estate broker in Farmington Hills, Mich. So she recently bought a FINDIT, a keychain that beeps after she claps three times. The other day when she was running late to a property closing and couldn't find her car keys, she started clapping. "Finally it started beeping," she says. "They ended up being in my closet at the bottom of a purse I wasn't using." She made it to the closing with five minutes to spare. Other new products work similarly. The "Now You Can Find It!", which began selling in February, consists of four plastic tags that attach to notoriously elusive items, then beep when users hit a button on a central device. A rival gizmo, the i-Spot, is coming out later this year. A handful of companies are marketing "kid finder" watches and pagers, and plans are under way to put homing devices in everything from pricey paintings to luggage to pacifiers. While losing keys is a problem that's been around as long as there have been locks, it is only recently that technology has evolved enough to make widespread object-finding feasible. Batteries are now small and efficient enough to satisfy the substantial energy needs of locating devices. The price of other electronic components such as microprocessors and radio-wave receivers has dropped to mass-market friendly levels. A new government mandate, dubbed e911, is also spurring the development of locating technology. It requires all wireless companies be able to locate people who dial 911 from their cellphones. That is leading to the development of chips using Global Positioning System satellite technology that are inexpensive enough, small enough and accurate enough to use in numerous consumer devices. By 2005, almost every cellphone sold in the U.S. will either contain a GPS chip or use some other location-finding technology. (Though the efforts are still in the nascent stage, wireless carriers are busy unveiling their own locating services: This summer AT&T Wireless launched its Find Friends service, which lets users of its high-speed network get the general location of those on their "buddy list" who have agreed to be found.) Now companies such as Digital Angel and Wherify Wireless are selling watches and other small GPS-enabled devices to allow people to keep tabs on children, elderly parents and pets. For $399 plus a service fee of $29.95 per month, Digital Angel subscribers can locate their progeny, which show up on the Digital Angel Web site as a red dot on a map. The service also notifies users when their child has fallen down or has moved outside of a designated area. Digital Angel is developing a GPS chip that can be implanted under the skin. Losing things -- and hunting for them -- has always been a time-consuming and pervasive problem. About 210 items each week -- cellphones, laptops, even fur coats -- are left on Amtrak trains at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station. This year, about 6,300 items have ended up in the lost and found at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square. The proliferation of must-have gadgets means these days there are more items to misplace, turning an occasional irritation into a chronic problem for some. "There is just more stuff: the Palm Pilot, the Filofax, the cellphone, all loaded with information," says Lawrence C. Katz, author of "Keep Your Brain Alive" and professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center. "We have more and more things to pay attention to and a limited amount of attentional bandwith, so things get lost in the cracks." Dr. Katz is part of a growing memory-enhancing industry, which includes books such as "The Memory Bible" as well as dietary supplements such as ginkgo biloba. He has come up with 83 "neurobic" exercises -- including showering with your eyes closed and eating waffles for dinner -- that he says boosts memory and other brain functions. The problem threatens to get worse for most everybody, since memory tends to degrade with age, and masses of Baby Boomers are, well, aging. But while misplacing things may seem like a memory issue, it is usually a learning problem: You didn't forget where you put your wallet; you just didn't pay attention, or "learn" where it was in the first place. Many of the new object-locating gadgets involve a central device and tags that are stuck or hooked to easily misplaced items. (Of course for it to work, users must make sure not to misplace the central device.) To find an item, push a button on the central device and the corresponding tag will beep. The device and tags communicate with each other via radio frequency waves. The products are still fairly expensive. Sharper Image Corp.'s "Now You Can Find It" device sells for $49.95. Digital Innovations will sell the i-Spot for $54.99. Some products, such as Ambitious Ideas' FINDIT are even cheaper (it sells for $14.95), but it can be used only for one object and the technology is a bit dodgy. Company founder Craig Nabat admits that it can beep for no reason. The downside of these devices is that they work only within a limited range, usually within 30 feet of the misplaced object. That's fine for a remote control stuffed under the sofa cushions, but not so good for a wallet left on the bus. Another problem is that the generation of GPS chips used in the kid-finding devices doesn't work well inside buildings. New chips are being developed that use wireless technology to better pinpoint locations inside. But the most ambitious effort may be that of a French company called DIPO. It is developing a gizmo of the same name that not only finds an object but notifies the owner if it is about to be left behind. The central device -- the size of a small cellphone -- checks in every few seconds to ensure that all tags are located within a certain distance, five meters, for instance. If one of the tags -- say, the one attached to your Palm Pilot -- is more than five meters from the central device, it will beep or vibrate. Put the central device in the bag or brief case you're carrying out the door and it will alert you that you're about to leave the Palm Pilot behind. DIPO will be available late next year and retail for about $120 for a central device and two tags. The company says its technology can be embedded into handhelds, laptops and cellphones to turn them into the central device. It is also investigating embedding its tiny locating chip into credit cards and luggage tags. The genesis of DIPO was the absentmindedness of the company's chief executive, Bruno Enea. "I kept losing my credit card. I always forgot my passport," Mr. Enea says. "I realized I had to do something about this problem." But some people eschew the new technological solutions altogether, and instead rely on prayers to St. Anthony -- the patron saint of lost things -- or their own creative resourcefulness. Shelbi Gerchenson was sick of losing jewelry and misplacing the keys to her Chicago apartment, especially when she went for a run or worked out at the gym. Now she attaches her rings to her running shoes and her keys to her ponytail holder. "I have to have something tied to me or I forget it," the 27-year-old marketing manager says. "I need to protect myself from myself." -------------------------------------------------------------- LOST ... AND FOUND A slew of products are being unveiled to prevent people from losing things -- their keys, their luggage, their kids. Here are a few: Product: "Now You Can Find It" Price: $49.95 What it is: A central device and plastic tags to attach to keys, glasses etc. Push a button on the device and the corresponding tag beeps. Misplaced item must be within 30 feet. Where Available: Sharper Image stores -------------------------- Product: DIPO Price: $120 for central device and two tags What it is: Central device and tiny tags to affix to keys, glasses etc. Device notifies user if an item has been left behind. Can locate a tagged item within five meters. When available: In late 2003 -------------------------- Product: Digital Angel Price: $399 plus $29.95 per month for service What it is: Wristwatch or pager to track the whereabouts of kids, pets or elderly parents. Using Global Positioning System satellite technology, notifies subscribers if person wearing device wanders outside of a pre-set boundary. Where available: www.digitalangel.net -------------------------- Product: Boomerangit Price: $9.95 to register four items for 10 years What it is: A registry for bicycles, laptops, cameras etc. Stickers or tags affix to registered items and offer the finder a reward. If lost or stolen item is found, BoomerangIt matches it with the owner and returns it. Where available: www.boomerangit.com -------------------------- Product: Rino Radio Price: $169 per radio for basic unit, $249 per radio with sophisticated mapping software What it is: A walkie-talkie that also beams your buddy's location. Where available: At sporting goods stores beginning this week Source: the companies -------------------------------------------------- |
| Copyright 2002 Wall Street Journal |
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