Personal Tech For Women: 5 Things To Know About Tracking Your Stuff

Monday, May 04, 2015

Melanie Sevcenko, GoLocal Contributor

Losing things – whether it’s your keys, wallet, purse or pets – can be stressful. And finding them often takes time. For your convenience, a number of companies have designed tracking devices that use GPS (among other methods) to create a map to finding your personal items. Here are 5 kinds of devices that take the search party out of the equation.

1. Tile

According to this company, “the average person misplaces upwards of 3,000 items a year, and then spends another 60 hours a year searching for them.” For only $16.50, this square-shaped tiny piece of plastic will look like any other trinket on your key chain. Like most tracking devices, it syncs with an app that can track up to 8 Tiles – one on your keys, your bag, your wallet, and so on. While Tile doesn’t provide the actual GPS real-time location of your lost item, it does help you re-trace your steps by automatically recording the last place your phone saw your Tile. So at least you can begin your search in the right spot. And like a game of hot and cold, your phone tracks the Bluetooth signal strength of your Tile. And as it draws you closer, Tile’s “little ditty” will play until your lost item is found again.

2. iTraq

You should take the name literally, but understand it’s geographically misleading. No matter, this credit card-sized device helps you find your keys, your luggage and even your kids. With a funding campaign on Indiegogo, the device is nearing completion and being marketed as the world’s first global location device. Without using GPS or Bluetooth, iTraq determines its location via cellular towers, allowing it to be located anywhere in the world where there’s cellular service. You simply attach it to your bike, purse, backpack or any item your regularly misplace (or deem important enough to track) and then use its mobile app to check its location status. A huge selling point: the battery life can last up to three years.

3. TrackR

This coin-sized tracker boasts that it can locate anything in seconds using your iPhone or Android. With a tap of your phone, TrackR can “ring” your misplaced items. And like Tile, this tracker also provides valuable info about how close you are to your keys or purse, or anything you’ve tagged with the TrackR. It also works the opposite way: if you loose your phone, you simply press the button on the TrackR and your phone rings, even if it’s on silent mode. There’s also a crowd function on this one, so if your lost item comes within 100 feet of one of 10,000 TrackR users’ phones, you’ll receive a GPS update of where your item was last seen

4. Locate your kids and pets

So enough about losing your small items. PocketFinder is all about locating the big stuff: people, pets and vehicles. In fact, it was specifically designed for that trifecta. PocketFinder actually claims to locate children, teens and seniors – those slippery group ages that tend to wander off. About the size of an Oreo cookie and costing $149, the tracker provides info about the distance, speed and direction of your lost darlings. PocketFinder also comes with an app that overlays maps with the locations of multiple people, and the tracker allows you to set “zones” to receive alerts when your child or pet enters or exits. It’s waterproof, pet-proof and childproof. For something similar, you can try Trax. It conveniently comes in two parts: one clips to your kid and the other to your pet’s collar.

5. Track your adventurous self

Spot Gen3 uses a personal GPS tracking device that’s perfect for the adventurous type. It can track exactly where you are – a mountaintop, a trail, a kayak – and record where you’ve been. You can save your waypoints so you can trace the route you took and review your entire journey. It also allows you check in at specific places to let your family and friends know you’re safe, as well as send them custom, pre-planned messages. With the push of a button, emergency responders can receive an SOS with your GPS location, making the Spot Gen3 an essential part of your gear.

Melanie Sevcenko is a journalist for radio, print and online. She reports internationally for BBC World Service and Monocle Radio (M24) in the UK, and for Deutsche Welle in Germany. Melanie also reports for the online news source GoLocalPDX, in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been broadcast by CBC in Canada and the Northwest News Network, and published by Al Jazeera English, Global Post, Pacific Standard, the Toronto Star and USA Today, amongst others.

Related Slideshow: Worcester’s Tech Startups

Prev Next

BuzzLanes

Buzz Lanes started out as a small idea for a Business Model Competition at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Success there led to the semifinalist round at Harvard, and a new business that aims to accelerate the careers of talented musicians that don’t have big marketing campaign resources.

“As graduates of WPI’s School of Business, and with several years of experience in the entertainment world, we decided to push forward and make Buzz Lanes a reality,” said Gonazlo Cruz Blanco, the man behind Buzz Lanes.

A native of Spain, Blanco's passion for music and business led to the creation of this monthly subscription music platform. One of the bands he’s promoting right now is Heffay, a Worcester Hip Hop band.

“It’s a win-win situation: musicians grow their fan base and connect with new fans, and the fans will always have the opportunity to find new music they haven’t heard before.”

The company's online Beta version launches April 4, 2014

Prev Next

Salespod (Repsly)

Salespod makes mobile/cloud software for organizations to manage field teams and the data that they collect.

“We currently have 2200 users in 31 countries, and are growing 10 to 15 percent per month. We are getting ready to launch a major marketing initiative and expect to grow to over 10,000 users this year,” said Mat Brogie, Salespod, Inc. COO.

“The software runs on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, and there is a web based management console that managers use to see where and when field reps perform their activities, and to analyze the data these field reps generate.”

Salespod has a research and development office in Zagreb, Croatia, and has established the Worcester office to launch its US presence. The company started in Worcester last year with only 800 users.

“There is a growing culture entrepreneurism in the city, and the physical changes in town add to the energy that is building … not to mention the economics are extremely friendly for a start-up trying to maximize the use of cash.”

Salespod announced in March that they would be making a name/logo change to Repsly.

Prev Next

Incite Advisors, Inc

Incite Advisors, Inc. provides Web application development services for applications in the healthcare and life sciences.

“We are focused on data driven applications and visualizing big data. Our largest client has hired us to develop a web/mobile application that allows doctors to capture patient diagnostic information in the natural course of their work,” said Incite founder and President Ronald Ranauro.

“The application will allow for rapid updates as medical knowledge advances. The idea is that by using the computer care teams can more easily coordinate services. We are also developing a web application for visualizing and searching big picture trends in clinical trials. In support of our work, we have developed an open source software toolkit called BoxspringJS.”

Ranauro grew up in Central Massachusetts and graduated from WPI. He said his company is reaching out to the student population to offer training and real world experience on paid customer projects.

Prev Next

Technocopia

Technocopia is a non-profit (tax-exempt status pending) geared towards creating open-source technologies that will benefit the whole world. As part of this mission they are opening a “hackerspace” in Worcester, which will serve as a home-base for their research and development of these technologies, as well as a common collaborative space for anyone in Central Massachusetts to make their own projects into reality.

Their hackerspaces feature a lounge, kitchen, conference space and computer stations. Technocopia intends to support the development of open-source technology that will allow any individual, family, or community to sustainably and independently satisfy their own humanitarian needs. These needs are defined loosely as things such as nutritious food, clean water, shelter, electricity, medicine, and free access to knowledge (the internet).

Prev Next

Mass Biomedical

Self-described as “World class incubators for world class science,” Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI) is dedicated to job creation and innovative healthcare throughout Massachusetts by promoting the growth of start-up biomedical companies. MBI is committed to collaborating with the academic, business and government communities to promote Massachusetts as the world leader in the health sciences industry.

Kevin O’Sullivan is the President & CEO of MBI, located on Prescott Street. O’Sullivan describes the company as a private, independent economic development organization that serves as a catalyst for life science and healthcare innovation.

“We help start biomedical companies and create jobs within the Biotechnology, Medical Device, Informatics, and Biomanufacturing industry by providing secure, clean bench and sink surface, staff trained and fully licensed laboratory space for usage by ‘seed stage’ companies. Building and maintaining collaborative affiliations and partnerships are essential to our success.”

Prev Next

MassDiGI

What would a tech company list be without a little fun? While neighboring Rhode Island smarts over Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios disaster, MassDiGI is pushing academic cooperation, entrepreneurship and economic development across the Massachusetts digital and video games ecosystem.

MassDiGI is a US Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center. Since starting up, MassDiGI has launched several initiatives that support entrepreneurship and strengthen the talent pipeline between higher education and the game industry.

Timothy Loew, Executive Director of MassDiGI, formerly held senior positions in business, development and academic planning at Becker College.

Prev Next

Compex Software

Jonathan Vo, Principal and Founder of Compex Software, is another Worcester Polytechnic Institute grad succeeding in the WPI neighborhood.

Vo’s software company has successfully deployed many of its software applications at hundreds of specialized operations throughout the US. Like others on this list, Compex Software came about as result of a student project. Vo did so well that he was recommended to an independent company and he’s never looked back.

Compex Software designs, develops and implements integrated business management software solutions to help small- and medium- sized businesses manage their operations. This includes manufacturing, inventory tracking, job costing, quality control, and accounting.

Prev Next

CellMosaic

Yumei Huang is the Founder, President & CEO, CellMosaic, Inc. The company recently signed a collaboration research agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute to co-develop two AqT based conjugate drugs. One is an antibody-drug conjugate for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and another is a protein-drug conjugate targeting CA125 for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Under the agreement, NCI will provide its proprietary antibody and CellMosaic will design and synthesize an antibody-drug conjugate and protein-drug conjugate using its proprietary AqT linker and advanced conjugation processes. The CRADA grants CellMosaic an exclusive license option from NCI for any new products developed under this CRADA.