IDC Ecco Personal Forgotten where you parked your car? Lost your hotel, tent or even family and friends? For the terminally disorientated, the Ecco Personal Pocket GPS Locator is designed to put you back on track. Indeed, this hi-tech key fob proves to be more than just the novelty item that it first appears. IDC Ecco Personal Pocket GPS …
I use a Holux GPSport 245 which I am sure is as small as that and has longer battery life. I use it to log my track for long periods then synchronise with any photographs taken and add the Lat/Long to the file for future reference. But a location can be saved and it will point towards that location.
http://www.holux.com/JCore/en/products/products_content.jsp?pno=349
"The unit is quoted as being accurate to within 10 metres, which, again, is a little conservative"
That's typical accuracy for any GPS now that selective availability is turned off. It's made up of several errors, most of which are outside the manufacturer's control. You just got it on a good day in a benign environment.
might integrate this technology into their keyless entry systems so that it automatically gets the location from, say, the car's GPS, and stores that when the 'lock' button is pressed, recharges an internal battery using an induction loop in the dash-slot, and maybe even allows waypoints to be collected and transferred back to the car's NAV system. All completely pointless, I know, but flashy technology all the same.
So does this store your track so you can retrace your steps or does it just point in the direction of the marked location. The former would be useful, but not that useful if you've been wandering all over the place - for example on a shopping trip. The latter would be next to useless.
Oh and @TRT that would be really usefull to the scrote who'd stolen your keys.
"...To calibrate you press a series of buttons on the unit as instructed in the manual, turn around 180° and turn the unit from its front onto its back and then back again."
That sort of flip it over and over "calibration" cycle usually implies a built-in compass (like the iPhone 3GS). Pure GPS units normally do not need to be flip-flop "calibrated".
@Fred Flintstone
There is an App for many other platforms that will record a GPS location. I can do it in internal gps Symbian phones WITHOUT an additional app.
I can also do it on my PDA with GPS without an additional app, I can also do it on my 305.. and my etc...
Though, fair enough your point is a point, but I hate this "There's an App for that" sounding in a way that suggests other platforms don't have the same capabilities currently(/prior).
@ AC: 10:42
That is so true!
And then they will use your GPS in the car to find their way to your place...
With the weird keys they make, wouldn't be too hard to adapt the key to accept a voltage and pass it through to the unit, so it is charged whilst you are driving, and turning it on automatically means you will most likely have a signal when you stop, which would be a problem if you lock your car and expect it to get a fix within seconds (specially since you have just moved your location).
Battery should last ages then, and should only need to run on the battery whilst you are looking for your car...
But GPS doesn't know the direction you are facing, only which way you are moving, and then assumes you are still facing that direction, because of inaccuracies your point whilst stationary can move behind you slightly, so now it thinks you are facing the opposite way, etc, etc
This way, it should be able to point to your car, based on the way you are facing and not moving...
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
