Never Lose Bag

[archerships]

Last night, I had to make a 20 minute trip to retrieve a battery charger that I had left behind at Cafe Cocomo. So I've been thinking about a "Never Lose" bag. Here's how I envision it working:

1. Chip the items of importance to you with an RFID tag.
2. Add a solar-powered RFID reader to the lining of the bag, with external indicator lights.
3. After filling the bag with your stuff, press a button to tell the bag "This is all the stuff that should be in the bag". The bag then reads all the chips in the bag, and stores them in memory.
4. Later, you can tell if you've put everything back in the bag by looking at the indicator lights. If the light is green, everything you initially packed is in the bag. If the light is red, you're still missing something.

Anyone know if this exists?

Posted via email from crasch's posterous

Comments

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

I heard about a construction worker's truck bed toolbox that did this a few years ago. Don't know if it ever took off, but the basic idea seems sound, especially if you've got a truck full of expensive tools.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[commander-zero.livejournal.com]

Fucking brilliant.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

That sounds great! I'm not sure how helpful it would be for me, since what I normally want to bring is just the right number of days' clothing (which probably don't make sense to tag), some electronics and their chargers (the chargers are the thing that I'm more likely to forget, and tags seem likely to increase their bulk), and toiletries (which really don't matter that much).

So if there was some way to tag things incredibly unobtrusively (and quickly and easily - it would be annoying to have a big process every time you buy a new electronic device), or have a detector that didn't need the objects tagged, then it would be excellent.

It seems that there's a really really useful product somewhere in this vicinity though.

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

RFID tags can be very small. There's one hidden in many credit cards these days. You can buy rolls of RFID labels (http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=ILR00146&vid=2383&src=F#turntodone). And some products already have them included. Since all you're looking for is "present", and not updating or reading much data off them, your bag might be able to just use a signature of any data you find.

One problem is, you'll need to put the receiver on the inside of the bag and shield it, otherwise it could catch tagged items nearby (or in your pockets) and then flash red later when its context has changed. But if you foil/screen line the bag and only scan when the zipper closes, from an antenna inside the bag, that won't be an issue.

Bonus feature: people won't be able to snoop your RFID tags from outside the bag either.

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

One of my Girl Scouts had this as her engineering project for Design and Discovery about five years ago. The reader was a little heavy to put in her bag at the time.

She also wanted to install the readers at her home entry and on her locker, with calendar-based listings of everything that needed to go with her on specific days. Tuesday was dance class, so she needed shoes, costume, etc. Wednesday was swimming so she needed goggles, etc....

It was a very neat project.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Very cool!

[timtad.livejournal.com]

Great idea

[simonfunk.livejournal.com]

I had one of these but I lost it.