Theft increases the average product cost to consumers. A mentoring system is presented that can help to reduce or prevent the inventory from lost or theft. Theft is a serious concern in the consumer market place. Industry loses billions per year on theft of merchandise. According to a Reuters report, last year, thefts by employees of U.S. retail merchandise accounted for $15.9 billion, or 44 percent of theft losses at stores, more than shoplifting and vendor fraud combined. Thus, the total thief by the customers and store employees during the year 2008 amounted to $36 billion. Several embodiments of ways to control or reduce the thefts in the market place are presented.

In an approach for suggesting an item to pack, a processor receives an indication that a user is packing a first item of luggage, wherein the indication includes information about a trip. A processor generates a packing list based on the information about the trip. A processor receives a request to link the first item of luggage and a second item of luggage for the trip. A processor links the first and second items of luggage such that contents of each item of luggage are jointly compared to the packing list. A processor receives, via a short-range point-to-point communication reader of the first item of luggage, a signal from a short-range point-to-point communication device operably affixed to a first item. A processor identifies the first item based on the signal. A processor determines that the first item is an item of the packing list.

The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a mobile device accessory includes a housing defining an attachment surface that is configured to engage a mobile device, a wearable component configured to be worn by a user of the mobile device, a separation detector configured to detect separation of the wearable component relative to the housing, and provide a signal when the wearable component becomes separated from the housing, and an alarm device configured to activate in response to the signal. Alternatively, the mobile device accessory may be a standalone device not designed to be attached to a mobile device.

Security systems and methods configured for use with an item of merchandise for retail display include a housing, at least one sensor carried by the housing and at least one output device carried by the housing. The security system further includes a controller carried by the housing and operably coupled to the sensor and to the output device. The controller is operable to determine a distance traveled by the item of merchandise from a retail display “home” position based upon a sensor input from the sensor, and to activate the output device based upon the distance traveled by the item of merchandise exceeding a threshold distance. The controller may utilize the at least one sensor in conjunction with an inertial navigation system (INS) and motion processing algorithms or techniques to determine the distance traveled by the item of merchandise from the retail display “home” position.

A tracking system can provide configuration instructions to an electronic device based on user presence. The tracking system can determine a user's location relative to a geographic boundary surrounding a geographic area associated with the user. Depending on the user's location, the tracking system may send instructions to configure an electronic device to send a notification or change the operating mode of the electronic device in response to the user's presence. The electronic device may be a scanning device that is configured to have a higher or lower scanning frequency, depending on the presence or absence of the user relative to the scanning device.

Systems and methods for authentication using radio frequency tags are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for approving a requested operation from a secondary user of a resource that is controlled by a primary user may include (1) a back end comprising at least one computer processor receiving, from a mobile application that is executed by a mobile device associated with a secondary user, a requested operation involving a resource that is controlled by a primary user; (2) the back end receiving a unique identifier from the secondary user mobile application, the unique identifier being read by the mobile application from a tag associated with the secondary user; (3) the back end determining that the received unique identifier matches a stored unique identifier that is associated with the secondary user; and (4) the back end approving the requested operation and communicating the approval to the secondary user mobile application.

A wireless device includes a user interface that generates a pairing signal in response to an indication from a user to pair the wireless device to at least one remote device and generates a first location request signal in response to a second indication from a user to locate the at least one remote device. A short-range wireless transceiver communicates RF signals to pair the wireless device to the at least one remote device and that transmits a first RF paging signal to the at least one remote device in response to the location request signal.

Security systems and methods for protecting retail display merchandise from theft are provided. For example, a security system includes a sensor configured to removably engage an input port of an item of merchandise, and a monitoring component configured to wirelessly communicate with the sensor and to removably support the sensor thereon, wherein the monitoring component and the sensor are configured to communicate with one another to determine a proximity of the item of merchandise relative to the monitoring component, wherein the monitoring component and/or the sensor is configured to initiate a security signal when the proximity between the monitoring component and the sensor is not within a predetermined range, and wherein the monitoring component and/or the sensor is configured to initiate a security signal in response to the sensor being removed from the input port of the item of merchandise.

A first functionality of anti-theft security system infrastructure provides at least signal reception capabilities and enables the anti-theft security system infrastructure to detect mobile anti-theft devices by receiving advertising signals therefrom and to hand over a respectively detected mobile anti-theft device to a second functionality of the anti-theft security system infrastructure, wherein the second functionality provides at least signal transmission capabilities and enables the anti-theft security system infrastructure to communicate with an handed-over mobile anti-theft device including the sending of a release command to the handed-over anti-theft device, automatically after the handing-over or if at least one release condition is fulfilled.

A system for alerting a user to unauthorized movement of an object has a mat that is embedded with a first wireless transceiver (e.g., NFC transceiver) and a second wireless transceiver (e.g., Wi-Fi® transceiver). An object, such as a firearm, has a wireless tag (e.g., NFC tag) coupled thereto for communication with the first wireless transceiver of the mat. When the object is moved, the first wireless transceiver loses connection with the wireless tag. When communication is lost, the second wireless transceiver transmits an alert to a user that the object has been moved.