What TrackDown is, and why you are going to love it
Our Vision
It is safe to say that pretty much everybody will sooner or later forget something valuable: be that your wallet, your jacket or something else. How cool would it be if you could get accurate details on the whereabouts of each of said items? And, even better: what if your phone could tell you that you were leaving something behind before you could even realize that?
Luckily enough, TrackDown does just that. All you need to do is carry a small antenna along with your valuable items. A series of detectors displaced around the campus will track the antenna’s movements, and store the collected information in a database for you to use at any time. As long as nothing goes missing, the interaction with TrackDown is non-existent. If, on the other hand, you realize you have lost something, all you have to do is log in on your TrackDown account; select the antenna you are looking for, and find out where your antenna was last seen.
And, if you are carrying multiple antennas, another option is available: as soon as one of the antennas is detected to have departed from your smartphone, a notification is sent to your phone. In this case, you can benefit from TrackDown’s features even sooner after the loss.
Of course, each one of us has different needs and habits: some scenarios may come up where false positives raise every few minutes (e.g. when you leave your bag in a classroom for a coffee break): each user can therefore specify exceptions that will not raise any alerts when verified.
So far so good, right? But, what if your smartphone misses your valuable item? How could you find out where it is? Another feature of Trackdown lets you discover the last known location.
AmI features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Sensing | tracking the antenna’s location (hotspot scan) and exstimated antenna’s distance from smartphone |
| Reasoning | deciding whether the user has lost something (i.e. is leaving something behind), stating the last known location of the antenna inside the campus |
| Acting | alert the user of the possible loss |
| Interacting | interaction with the antenna, access to the antenna’s previous locations, personalized settings |
TrackDown is
Adaptive: the system changes behaviour based on the user’s preferences
Intelligent: the system can realize on its own when something goes missing
Sensitive: tracking the antenna’s location
Transparent: as long as the user doesn’t need the system, the system isn’t going to bother the user in any way at all
Ubiquitous: although the system is being developed so that it can be used within the campus, it can be easily ported to other kinds of environments (both indoors and outdoors)