Electronic leash
Encyclopedia
Electronic leash is a concept offered from various vendors in various functional shapes and physical designs. It is usually a miniature wireless appliance that extends the concept of a key pager, adding the feature of adjustable distance sensitivity and an option of a multiplicity of identity codes recognised by one receiver.
A code transmission in conjunction with a wireless communication distance metrics raises an alarm, as soon as the set distance level between paired transmitter and receiver of a wireless signal transmission is exceeded. Receivers may be born by the owner of an object, whereas the other transmitting item gets attached to the object for virtually leashing it to the owner.
The transmission distance is adjusted to the intention of keeping the leashed object in contiguity to the bearers body or his workdesk or mobile workplace environment, that is a distance usually as short as the visually controlled ambience, i.e. no more than about five metres.
After initially pairing the chosen two wireless token devices with each other or one of that type with a distinct mobile phone or smart phone, either one or both raise an alarm when exceeding the set distance. As long as the two items are in reach of the wireless link, the metrics may be applied to support retrieval. After the reach of the wireless link is exceeded, there is no chance to make use of the signalling for retrieval of the lost object.
Advanced solutions offer communications with GSM or LTE mobile phone of any brood, thus requiring just one transmission unit and using the phone as the receiver. However, none of the leashing functions makes use of the networking function of the mobile phone.
The electronic leash is sensitive to a set distance, whereas the concept of the electronic key
pager
or electronic key fob just responds to any received and properly coded signal when emitted and disregarding variation in dístance.
Currently some similar applications are offered:
Possible combinations depend on the application on the phone.
The four options make use of various physical phenomena and thus offer a variety of signal processing to overcome
An open disclosure of a speciofication for the communication concept with some of these products is missing. Several other products are no longer identified in market. Possibly patent infringements prevent from continuing the marketing approach.
With highly advanced communication protocols, as with Bluetooth V4.0 low energy protocol, the battery exhaust is significantly lower than with other modes of operation in WPAN (IEEE 802.15) or WBAN (IEEE 802.16) standards.
All known other approaches are either proprietary or just industrial standard, as e.g. ZigBee, ANT of others, hence requiring special pairing of transmiter and receiver resp. Clear specification of battery wear is not published with all known vendors' offerings.
A code transmission in conjunction with a wireless communication distance metrics raises an alarm, as soon as the set distance level between paired transmitter and receiver of a wireless signal transmission is exceeded. Receivers may be born by the owner of an object, whereas the other transmitting item gets attached to the object for virtually leashing it to the owner.
The transmission distance is adjusted to the intention of keeping the leashed object in contiguity to the bearers body or his workdesk or mobile workplace environment, that is a distance usually as short as the visually controlled ambience, i.e. no more than about five metres.
Usage principle
Basic electronic gadget is a wireless token that communicates with a counterpart attached to the object to be leashed wirelessly. User guides for mode of operation recommend to bear a very light designed alarm token with a necklace, a wristband or similarly directly bound to the body.After initially pairing the chosen two wireless token devices with each other or one of that type with a distinct mobile phone or smart phone, either one or both raise an alarm when exceeding the set distance. As long as the two items are in reach of the wireless link, the metrics may be applied to support retrieval. After the reach of the wireless link is exceeded, there is no chance to make use of the signalling for retrieval of the lost object.
Advanced solutions offer communications with GSM or LTE mobile phone of any brood, thus requiring just one transmission unit and using the phone as the receiver. However, none of the leashing functions makes use of the networking function of the mobile phone.
The electronic leash is sensitive to a set distance, whereas the concept of the electronic key
Key
Key may refer to:* Key , device used to open a lock or door* Key , a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm...
pager
Pager
A pager is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call...
or electronic key fob just responds to any received and properly coded signal when emitted and disregarding variation in dístance.
Applications
Object leashing works with the phone at hands working as a receiver. Mobile phone leashing works the other way round. Then the receiver is born with the owner, whereas the phone as transmitter gets virtually leashed. A mandatory feature beyond frequency and modulation discrimination is a code selectivity to prevent from responses to any received signal.Currently some similar applications are offered:
- Initial pairing of items
- Alarm on separation of paired items
- Forwarding phone ringing
- Forwarding motion detection
- Alarm on low battery condition
- Alarm on key break attack
- Notification on similar nodes transmitting in vicinity
Possible combinations depend on the application on the phone.
Standardization
Relevant existing standard for such application is Bluetooth V4.0 Low Energy of 2009-12-17 with the profiles Find Me and Proximity.Modes of operation
There are four different concepts available for implementing the required distance metrics relevant to raise the alarm:- conventional RSSIRSSIIn telecommunications, received signal strength indicator is a measurement of the power present in a received radio signal.RSSI is a generic radio receiver technology metric, which is usually invisible to the user of the device containing the receiver, but is directly known to users of wireless...
concept as defined WLAN IEEE 802.11 and BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
IEEE 802.15.1 - transmission power variation without breaking connection
- transmission power variation provoking breaking connection
- transmission power polarisation segregating direct and indirect path signalling
The four options make use of various physical phenomena and thus offer a variety of signal processing to overcome
- multipath propagation,
- crinked and direct paths
- multipath fading and
- excess reach of nearby colliding transmitters
- higher populations of transmitters.
Products available
The respective products are sold under brandings as- BlueNIO (TenBU Technologies) and a published patent application
- Casio with a Casio watch based Bluetooth low energy protocol (demonstrator) for proximity profile
- OpenBeacon (Bitmanufaktur GmbH)
- SECU4 with the US registered trademark Secu4™
- TokLoc® (ReadPost GmbH) with a EUOffice for Harmonization in the Internal MarketThe Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market , or OHIM is the trademark and designs registry for the internal market of the European Union. It is based in Alicante, Spain, and its president is António Campinos.- Task :...
wide registered trademark TokLoc® and a published patent application - ZOMM® (ZOMM LLC) with the US registered trademark Wireless Leash™
An open disclosure of a speciofication for the communication concept with some of these products is missing. Several other products are no longer identified in market. Possibly patent infringements prevent from continuing the marketing approach.
Trade Marks
Currently (2011-04-17) for the generic term of electronic leash no US trade mark nor UK trade mark is valid or otherwise pending for this generic term of product.Advantages
Transmission power of the wireless token for the object may be very low in the 1 mW range, as just the distance between the bearer and the item to be leashed shall be bridged. That is a level causing no harm in any environment and electromagnetic interference to sensitive, i.e. medical devices may be neglected.With highly advanced communication protocols, as with Bluetooth V4.0 low energy protocol, the battery exhaust is significantly lower than with other modes of operation in WPAN (IEEE 802.15) or WBAN (IEEE 802.16) standards.
Disadvantages
Respective power consumption with the receiver depends on the mode of communication. With international standard WLAN (IEEE 802.11) and with industrial standard Bluetooth V2.0 (international standard IEEE 802.15.1) the battery of the phone used as receiver may be exhausted much faster than without leashing. Power consumption with the mobile phone unit is comparable to wireless headset operation. However, for phones with better advanced standard Bluetooth V4.0 low energy protocol has just started in 2011Q2 and or future international standard WBAN (IEEE 802.16) will not be in market before 2012 after publishing the new standard.All known other approaches are either proprietary or just industrial standard, as e.g. ZigBee, ANT of others, hence requiring special pairing of transmiter and receiver resp. Clear specification of battery wear is not published with all known vendors' offerings.
Basics
The owner of any mobile phone still shall keep addicted to the basics: Written down IMEI, MEID or ESN number (as generally printed on a sticker placed by manufacturer under the battery of any phone) kept somewhere safe. That's a unique identifier to be taken as a proof of ownership in case of loss. The other is written down PIN code, super PIN code etc. to be kept safely far apart from the phone. And finally, it helps to remember from safely kept notice the own phone number, the subscribers password and the service phone number of the provider.Informal self determination
The offered service as e.g. with Apple(R)'s products for tracking the current whereabouts of potentially lost items always includes the permanent tracking of the bearers' whereabouts as a severe limitation to informal self determination beyond the legal requirements yet set for the telephone network operators.Transmission concepts
- Fuzzy locating
- UnilaterationMultilaterationMultilateration is a navigation technique based on the measurement of the difference in distance to two or more stations at known locations that broadcast signals at known times. Unlike measurements of absolute distance or angle, measuring the difference in distance results in an infinite number of...
- BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
- Bluetooth low energyBluetooth low energyBluetooth low energy is a feature of Bluetooth 4.0 wireless radio technology, aimed at new, principally low-power and low-latency, applications for wireless devices within a short range...
- RTLSRTLSRTLS may refer to:* Real-time locating system - general techniques for asset and staff tracking using wireless hardware and real-time software* Ravenna Training and Logistics Site - an Ohio Army National Guard base....
- WLAN
- WPAN
- IEEE 802.11IEEE 802.11IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee . The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent...
- IEEE 802.15.1