Patent ID: 7898414
Filing Date: 2011-03-01
Classification: G08B

Abstract:
1. A system for locating and preventing the loss of personal items and the like, said system comprising: a personal portable homing center device that is a receiver comprising an algorithm to correlate distance as a function of a received signal strength, a switch for selecting an operating mode, and a transducer that is actuated by a sensed change in the received signal strength; a zone device that is attached to a personal item and the like, where said zone device comprises a small portable transmitter that is transmitting a unique signal that is identifiable by the personal portable homing center device; where, the sensed change is increasing if the homing center device and zone device are moving closer together or decreasing if they are moving further apart, and the sensed change is zero when the signal strength is not changing, either because the distance between the homing center device and zone device is constant or because the zone device is out-of-range of the receiver; and wherein the system has operating modes, said operating modes comprising an Off mode, a Homing-in mode for locating items, and a Homing-out mode for preventing the loss of items, where in the Off mode the homing center device is turned off, where in the Homing-in mode an output of the transducer indicates whether the homing center device and zone device are moving closer together or moving further apart, enabling the user to adjust his movements toward the zone device until the homing center device and zone device are together, whereupon the output from the transducer ceases as there is no sensed change and where in the Homing-out mode so long as the received signal strength detected by the homing center device remains above a threshold level, the output is suppressed even if there is a sensed change in the received signal strength, and when the received signal strength falls below the threshold level the output is generated even if there is no sensed change where the received signal strength is a function of distance between the zone device and the homing center device therein enabling the zone device a geographic range of movement, but still maintaining detection for retrieving personal items outside of the geographic range of movement, and where the mode of the homing center device can be switched from the Homing-out mode to the Homing-in mode to locate personal items that have moved outside of the geographic range, and can be switched from the Homing-in mode to the Homing-out mode to prevent the loss of personal items that have been retrieved.