LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We’ve seen countless solutions to finding lost car keys over the past few decades, but this latest solution from Treehouse Labs makes the attempt to be practical and fun while solving one of mankind’s greatest problems through an iPhone app. Bikn is a location tracking solution to help you find anything that has a tendency to get lost: dogs, purses, cameras, your grandparents at Wal-Mart, you name it. By attaching a small location tracker to any item you tend to lose, Bikn makes finding things easier than ever.
Here’s how it works: You attach the Bikn case to your iPhone. The case has its own battery pack so it doesn’t eat your juices while you’re busy playing Words With Friends. You take the two Bikn tags that come in your kit and attach them to your purse and your car keys. Then you load up the myBikn app on your iPhone and leash the objects to your device. It’s easy and literally only takes a couple of seconds to set up. Once the tags are leashed to your iPhone, you can set parameters to alert you if a tag has moved out of range from a specified distance. To locate your items, you can either page the tag, which will emit a loud musical sound, or you can track it down yourself using the myBikn app. Time of flight and signal strength are used to calculate how far your iPhone is from you tag in your quest for the missing object.
The system is actually very responsive. Unlike some GPS systems, the Bikn app show high sensitivity and is able to tell when you’re within a few feet of the tag. The range of the case is about 100-150 meters and up to 8 tags can be leashed to the phone at a time, but an update is forthcoming that will increase that number to 200. Later this year Treehouse Labs plans to introduce a small Bikn router that will extend the range of a personal Bikn network up to 2-4km. The price for a Bikn set that includes the iPhone case and two tags is $99. Additional tags can be purchased in pairs for $49.
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