Mobile phone "detector"

Anyone got an idea on how to detect whether or not I have my mobile phone (iPhone) with me when I get in my car? Until recently, I always left my mobile phone in my car while at home. Things have changed (work-related) and now I keep it in my home when I am at home. I don't "wear it" while at home, and don't always leave it at the same place in my home (e.g., with my car keys).

Since I started keeping it in my home while at home, several times I left without it. I would like a way to warn me that I'm leaving in my car without it. My daily driver is an older vehicle, so it doesn't have any bluetooth stuff, but I would consider adding such devices if it helped. I don't want to attach anything to the iPhone. Suggestions?

Thanks,
Ira

My wife has the same problem. I've thought about getting one of these starter kits - http://www.greengoose.com/ - and slipping a tag into the back of her iPhone case and tying the sensors receiver into my HA system. A rule along the lines of; if garage door opens and no motion detected from iPhone tag in previous x minutes = flash lights/make announcement.

This is where I go low-tech. Every time I leave the house I follow the same routine... check for phone, wallet, work keys, house keys - in the same order!
It's worked before too so I've been doing it for years.

video321 said:

This is where I go low-tech. Every time I leave the house I follow the same routine... check for phone, wallet, work keys, house keys - in the same order!
It's worked before too so I've been doing it for years.

Click to expand...

That's how I roll too. If anything in my morning routine is out of place or sequence (thanks Honey) I'll forget it though. It doesn't matter with my wife however, no routine seems to work. Each days is a flip-of-the-coin if she has her phone or not - the same holds true for her remembering to bring it home from work. It really screws up any location-based HA that I try to implement... :angry2:

"Terry, the home thingy didn't turn on the stuff like it usually does when I got home today."

"Did you leave your phone at work again?"

"Yeah, I forgot it."

:nutz:

Oh how I can relate...
From the start I got us keyfobs to arm/disarm the house along with opening and closing the garage door (main entry/exit). No codes to remember, no complicated routines, nothing... just hit a button!
Simple, right? Please!!! I would have to check everyday when I got to work to see if the house was armed on the mornings she left after me. After constant nagging (role reversal here ) she started using it all the time. I had to keep repeating... instead of hitting the garage button on the way out, hit the remote button.

I wish we could somehow tie in to Google's location service or a program like My Tracks and be able to pull the location information into our HA systems.

BSR, what do you use as your automation engine? Over at Homeseer's forum, someone wrote a really nice plugin of sorts, that pulls in the latitude information into the server.

Works VERY well.

--Dan

No alarm panel does this. But this made me think of a cool idea. If the alarm panel used a rolling code style pin and you had a phone app that produced the pin for you. Then you would need the phone to enter in your code. Add to it a static pin as you have now and you get 2-factor auth.

drozwood90 said:

BSR, what do you use as your automation engine? Over at Homeseer's forum, someone wrote a really nice plugin of sorts, that pulls in the latitude information into the server.

Works VERY well.

--Dan

Click to expand...

Very cool! I'll pop over and take a look.

Thanks

hagak said:

No alarm panel does this. But this made me think of a cool idea. If the alarm panel used a rolling code style pin and you had a phone app that produced the pin for you. Then you would need the phone to enter in your code. Add to it a static pin as you have now and you get 2-factor auth.

Click to expand...

SecurID for your alarm panel! But, I think the risks outweigh the benefits. If you leave your phone 30 miles away, or the battery dies, you can't go home?

http://www.i-bluetooth.com/
I have two of them, they work great.

Here's a really simple purpose-built device for your exact issue:
http://www.bringrr.com/products/

Work2Play said:

Here's a really simple purpose-built device for your exact issue:
http://www.bringrr.com/products/

Click to expand...

That's the kind of device I am looking for. I just placed an order for three of them...one for my car, one for my wife's car, and one to take apart to see if it can be hidden behind the dash (assuming the "alarm" is loud enough).

Looks like the most common complaint is that one Bringrr can only be paired with one phone. It would be nice if you could pair one Bringrr with mutliple phones. It would need a button that would allow you to tell it that it is okay that one or more phones are missing. I guess you could unplug it then plug it back in to silence it, since it says it only checks when it senses the car being started. Or maybe it will silence itself after a short period of time (without unplugging it).

It's been out over a year. I'm kinda surprised there aren't any competitors yet. It would be great to have a more sophisticated device that could be better "integrated" into the car's system, especially if it already has built-in bluetooth/USB. Do newer cars already have this capability built in to their systems?

Thanks,
Ira

Hey, when the phone is paired to this device (i.e. when you get into the car) can that 'action' be a trigger for Tasker (Android App)?

Hopefully the OP can confirm once his come in... My guess is, probably not. Tasker seems to support actions based on bluetooth status, but the device itself doesn't normally actually connect to the phone, it's just paired with it - this is how it can detect the phone without interfering with your normal bluetooth headset.