Steve Wozniak, the guy who brought us the personal computer, has another idea.
His new company has created a wireless network that he says can help you find almost anything–lost keys, lost dog, lost child. His Los Gatos, Calif., firm has designed tags that you can attach to a child, a dog or just about anything. A hand-held monitor uses global positioning system satellites to show where the tagged items are.
The genius behind the idea is in the use of a low-power, long-range wireless protocol that operates at about 1,200 bits per second. That is roughly 1/50th the speed of a dial-up modem, but fast enough to send a quick burst of information about an object’s location.
Wozniak, who is known in Silicon Valley simply as “Woz,” co-founded Apple Computer Inc. nearly 30 years ago. He said this idea came to life in a Los Gatos coffeehouse about a year and a half ago as he was sharing ideas with friend Greg Galanos of Mobius Venture Capital.
Galanos started jotting things down on a napkin. Mobius was the first to invest, putting $6 million into the company, Wheels of Zeus (or WOZ).
The firm is still small. Wozniak said he has 17 people, but Gina Clark, vice president of business development and marketing, jokes that he is counting some people three times.
Wozniak did not give many details; the first products based on the technology, called WozNet, probably will not arrive for another year. But he said the hand-held monitor has a radio that can detect tagged items within one or two miles.
The range can be extended through the Internet, with other people’s hand-held monitors creating an extended network.
He said the company has figured out a way to get a radio and GPS together for $25–that’s before the cost of a battery, screen and all the other parts it takes to make a mobile device.
Wozniak said security is built into WozNet, so that other people cannot track your things; though he said other people are free to track his four dogs, if they like.