We've all done it - got back to the car park, and headed to the car, only to find it's not where we thought it was. It may only be 2 or 3 rows away but if it's dark it can be hard to find.

Pair a car with it's key by bluetooth, and you'll know if you're near your car by the flashing indicator light on your key. If you're in range the light will flash green, if you're not in range it will flash red.

This is completely independent of any other bluetooth devices you may have, you can't communicate with your key via your PDA or anything like that, bluetooth headsets and suchlike would run at a slightly different frequency (or be paired using a different code) so there's no confusion.
-- kmlabs, Dec 10 2004

Many modern cars come equipped with a factory-installed remote car-alarm system that either flashes the lights or emits a brief whoop when set or unset by pushing a button on the key. Isn't this redundant? Or were you just making sure we didn't bother all the neighbors while trying to find the car?
-- jurist, Dec 10 2004


Hadn't really thought of car alarms, tbh - my brain obviously wasn't in gear this morning.

Having said that, I did hear that car alarms are soon to be made illegal, on the grounds that they annoy everyone and serve no useful purpose - they don't deter thieves, and no-one pays them any attention (other than to say "bloody car alarm!" - no-one actually investigates to make sure there's no burglar).

Yeah, you're right - probably redundant, sorry.
-- kmlabs, Dec 10 2004


It's not totally redundant. Your system worked like silent sonar. All the identifier mechanisms were in the palm of your hand, not confusing other car owners in the lot simultaneously looking for their own vehicles, nor waking the entire neighborhood when you parked several blocks away from your boss' house while illicitly visiting his/her spouse.
-- jurist, Dec 10 2004


Well, if you made it so you could find the car keys using bluetooth, that might be a help. Combine that in reverse so that you can find the phone via bluetooth (I'm assuming you'd need some kind of applet to receive the bluetooth comms), and you should be able to reduce the number of times either of them gets lost.
-- gth, Jul 08 2009


Like it [gth]. The number of times I've cursed the fact that I can't phone my car keys so that I can hear them ring and then locate them (as with the cellphone!)

Now, with bluetooth car keys, you have a 2 factor system so it's much more likely that when you misplace one of them you have at least got the other.

Lost the car keys ... use the phone to cause them to beep. Lost the phone ... use the car keys to make the phone beep. Brilliant!
-- kindachewy, Jul 09 2009



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