A process is provided that uses a sensor system incorporated into the passenger cabin of a vehicle to detect children and/or pets left unattended and who are therefore at risk of serious injury or death due to heat stroke. If an unattended child or pet is detected, a variety of alerts are issued over time, the escalating nature of the alerts intended to insure a rapid response. After the system has operated long enough to insure that no child or pet has been left behind, the sensor system is automatically placed into a standby mode. In standby mode the sensor system may either be turned completely off in order to minimize off-line power consumption or it may be incorporated into an on-board security system.

Systems, methods, and devices for locating items, people, and/or animals are provided. In accordance with some embodiments, locator devices for locating a target device are provided, the locator devices comprising: a first transceiver configured to communicate with a second transceiver in the target device; a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver configured to receive data from a plurality of satellites for calculating a location; a visual indicator; and a hardware processor that: receives signals from the first transceiver; calculates an estimated distance between the locator device and a target device based on the signals; controls whether the GNSS receiver is powered on or off based on the estimated distance; and causes the visual indicator indicate an estimated direction to the target device from the locator device.

A proximity based ad-hoc messaging, alerting, and tracking system can be employed to quickly and efficiently propagate alerts when a child or other individual becomes lost. Various types of alerts can be provided to facilitate locating a lost individual even in scenarios where a network connection or GPS is not available. The system can also be employed to track the presence of an individual after traveling in a vehicle to enable detecting when the individual has been separated from all guardians such as would be the case when the individual is left in the vehicle.

The present disclosure relates to location and communication systems that can be utilized for locating people, pets and other objects with a software defined radio set. A personal electronic device (PED) such as a cellular telephone, personal data assistant (PDA) or other device that include a software defined radio set can be configured for operation as a locator device. The PED transmits a signal A transponder or micro-transponder (MT) that is tagged to an object is arranged to reply to a transmission received from the PED. The PED based locator is arranged to calculate a distance between the PED and the MT using the time-of-flight (TOF) between the transmission and the receipt of a reply. The absolute geographic position of the PED can be determined using satellite navigation information, while the position of the MT relative to the PED can be determined from the TOF information.

The remote control-finding device is a GPS based system that is used to locate household goods, include the remote controls for various audio visual devices, within a home. The remote control-finding device comprises a locating device and a plurality of tracking devices. The locating device is removably attached to a stationary item, such as a television, within the household while the each of the plurality of tracking devices are attached to the household good to be tracked. The locating device is fitted with a first GPS receiver that is used to track the position of the locating device. To find a tracked household good, the locating device queries an individual tracking device to receive the GPS location of the individual tracking device and uses that information to calculate the direction and distance from the locating device to the individual tracking device.

Disclosed herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method, and/or computer program product embodiments for tracking proximities of devices and/or objects. In one embodiment, the system operates by determining whether a plurality of devices of a tethered segment are inside or outside a predefined area. The system also operates by determining that a first device of the plurality of devices is outside of the predefined area based at least partially on the determination of whether the plurality of devices are inside or outside the predefined area. The system further operates by transmitting at least one alert notification to at least one device based at least partially on the determination that the first device is outside the predefined area, wherein the alert notification identifies the first device outside the predefined area.

A proximity based ad-hoc messaging, alerting, and tracking system can be employed to quickly and efficiently propagate alerts when a child or other individual becomes lost. Various types of alerts can be provided to facilitate locating a lost individual even in scenarios where a network connection or GPS is not available. The system can also be employed to track the presence of an individual after traveling in a vehicle to enable detecting when the individual has been separated from all guardians such as would be the case when the individual is left in the vehicle.

Systems and methods for controlling and locating the source of a remote signal, comprising a first electronic device configured to transmit a first wireless signal containing information concerning a power level of the first electronic device, and a second electronic device configured to: measure a strength of the first wireless signal; approximate a proximity of the second electronic device to the first electronic device; identify, based on the approximated proximity and the information concerning the power level of the first electronic device, one or more changes to a configuration of the first wireless signal for optimizing power consumption of the first electronic device during a search for the first electronic device; and instruct the first electronic device, via a second wireless signal, to transmit the first wireless signal with the at least one or more identified configuration changes.