Lost and Found

Did you know the average person spends 10,000 hours of their lifetime looking for disappearing car keys? To be honest, I made that number up, but I think we can all agree time flies at the speed of light whenever we’re inevitably late and looking for that one last thing – keys, phone, glasses – before stepping out the door. What if you could find what you’ve lost with the touch of a button? There’s plenty of tech out there promising to reunite you with your AWOL objects, but what about your pet, your purse, your phone itself? What recourse is available when those waylaid whatsits that aren’t hiding in your couch cushions, but actually sitting on a park bench miles away? For the chronically searching, those kings and queens of the misplaced and forgotten, deliverance has arrived! Meet TrackR Bravo, a coin-sized device that attaches to your valuables keeps tabs on their whereabouts. The brainchild of two recent UC Santa Barbara graduates, inspired by their own experience with miscellaneous vanishing acts, TrackR Bravo is a Bluetooth enabled solution capable of interacting with your smartphone and using crowd-based GPS to geolocate mislaid property, whether it’s sitting on your magazine-laden coffee table to at bus stop down the street. About the size of a quarter and priced at $29, the TrackR Bravo can be attached to anything, from a set of keys to a bicycle to the collar of your wandering dog. As long as the fob is within 100 feet of your Bravo-enabled device, you can send a signal to trigger a beeping alarm that leads you to your missing item. Past 100 feet, the alarm is no longer an option, but the GPS will kick in, tagging various doodads and personal effects and...