Authors:
David Steiner, Suzanne Bleakley, Brad Johnson, Kimberly Wood
Abstract:
This disclosure proposes an application which can be remotely triggered to help and motivate people to find and return devices such as phones misplaced in a Retail Space.
Background:
Finding lost/misplaced devices in retail stores can be a challenge. Retail stores can be very large and a device sitting on a shelf can be difficult to distinguish from the normal products. There are many technologies which can be used to determine a device location. Bluetooth Low Energy can be used when in close proximity, typically <30 feet depending on obstructions with a tracking device/application to know if you are close to the lost device. Wi-Fi Round Trip Time (Wi-Fi RTT) can be used to determine the distance of a device from Wi-Fi access points provided the access points are enabled to provide the RTT measurement. Wi-Fi RTT can also enable GPS-like indoor positioning if there are enough Wi-Fi access points capable of providing RTT.
The iPhone and Android device finding solutions leverage GPS which does not work well indoors. The iPhone and Android solutions also enable the ability to trigger the lost device to make a noise but making a noise is only useful if the person looking for the device is close enough to hear the noise.
Existing solutions require additional hardware, special capabilities in the Wi-Fi infrastructure or a human within range listening for a specific noise. The solution proposed does not require special hardware but does enhance the iPhone and Android audible noise based capability.
Description:
The proposed solution is to create an application which can be remotely triggered. Rather than just making a noise, this application when triggered will play an audible message with instructions. For example the message could be:
"If you find this tablet/device, please take it to the customer service counter. Thank you for shopping at <insert retailer name here> <insert retailer jingle here>."
This message can be looping. A retailer could choose to add incentives to this message such as including a 5 or 10% discount on an item (or shopping trip) in return for the effort of bringing the device to the customer service counter.
This solution is an enhancement to the typical trigger the lost device to make a noise as most customers will not know what to do with a device sitting on a shelf making a noise (is it getting ready to self destruct?). Providing a message with clear instructions enlists all people in a retail store, not just the store personnel in the effort of finding a lost device.
TGCS Reference 1971
