Where Are My Keys? 9 Gadgets To Fight Senior Moments

Losing the car keys, at least temporarily, is frustrating. Misplacing your glasses, even more so, but with Baby Boomers aging - the question is "where's Grandpa" not Waldo.

There are useful and innovative technology gadgets on the market or in development that can change how we track our things and our loved ones. Sure there are some issues around privacy, particularly when someone tracks someone else against their will or without their knowledge or consent, but all of these tools have a huge potential for good.

Where's Grandpa?

I have a tech friend who is a genius. When his ailing Dad kept losing track of time, he built a clock that revolved around mealtimes replacing the numbers with breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and he might have included medication on it. He told me that it added a couple of years to his Dad's life because it stressed him out to know the time.

But what happens when an elderly parent forgets where they are and drives around trying to find their way home - and all the kids are out looking for him? GPS tracking is the answer.

Where's Fido?

Tagg is one of the more famous ones for pets. A simple tracker built into a collar. You could remove the collar and use it for a person, if you wanted.

I'm Here from the I'm Watch (smartwatch) people. I'm pretty sure this product is still in development, but it disappeared while I was working on this story. Here is the cached page at Google to give you an idea of its look and feel.

Retrievor is a tiny, elegant, solar-powered GPS tracker in development and halfway to its funding goal on indiegogo. The description states it is a little thicker than four stacked quarters. Just as easy to lose as one's keys or glasses, but hopefully they will add a keychain holding type tab or provide an option for a semi-permanent sticker.

A quick search on Amazon for personal GPS tracker (no affiliate links in here) reveals a number of great devices, mostly aimed at the outdoor enthusiast; however you could make any of them work to keep tabs on an elderly parent or a wayward child. A quick scan of the reviews and you'll see that many of them have limitations or quirks, but those will be overcome based on new approaches. The Spot 2 device, on Amazon, looks durable and has good reviews. And I don't think you could go wrong with a device like BackTrack from Bushnell. Several of these are keychain ready.

Stick N Find is one of my favorites, although it is Bluetooth, not GPS. For those things you can generally keep within 100 feet of your person, this oversized button is the way to go. They are affordable (~ USD$50), the size of a quarter, and come with a sticker back (3M adhesive) or a key fob mounting plate (good for attaching to pet collars, too). Their indiegogo crowdfunding campaign ($70,000 goal) reached almost one million dollars ($931,870) in January 2013.

If you lose your luggage, read Kelly Clay's piece in the left sidebar: Afraid Of Losing Your Luggage? In which she explains how TrakDot works. The company sent me a media review sample, but I have not had a chance to test it.

The Bike Spike is like LoJack for your bike. The successful Kickstarter campaign defined itself as a bike crash reporting device, though. So if you have people who you are out exploring the world on bike, this is your device.

Speaking of Lojack, I just have to mention their smartphone software that will help you recover a lost, as in stolen, device. The company offered to send me a trial key, but I never activated it. I may test it out in the near future. LoJack for Mobile only works with Samsung Galaxy products - as in S4 smartphone or one of their tablets. While not aimed at helping you find a lost person, theoretically it would work to do that.

These devices do not stop the ginkgo moments (that's what my friend and mentor from the Wall Street Journal, Tom Petzinger called them). You still have to remember that you tagged an item and how to use your smartphone to find it. That's a different problem. In the case of protecting those who need protecting, any of these gadgets could be a lifeline.