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Yulia Lerner (left) and Roie Galitz (right), co-founders of GearEye.

Yulia Lerner and Roie Galitz would misplace personal items constantly. Yulia went through a harrowing experience once when she lost her passport. Roie, a professional photographer, had trouble keeping track of all his gear. He even forgot his camera in a plane during a photoshoot at Victoria Falls.

The duo met at a conference in 2014. As they got talking, they realized there’s a real need for a product to help professionals keep track of their expensive tools and equipment.

Yulia and Roie came up with GearEye, a small gizmo that acts as a gear-management system. It uses radio frequency ID (RFID) technology to keep track of things like cameras, lenses, and wallets.

Users place RFID tags on their items and use the GearEye app to create a checklist. The app will notify you when all the tagged items are in the bag. If anything’s missing, it’ll disclose what its last scanned location was.

“Each RFID tag has its own unique ID which is transmitted in the air when our device is close to it. The user will create a list of tagged items, naming each one, and then our app will be sure not to misidentify them in the future scans,” explains Yulia.

GearEye’s Kickstarter goes live today with a funding goal of US$60,000 and an early-bird price of US$119. Estimated delivery is July next year. The startup claims its product is superior to Bluetooth tracking devices as the tags are incredibly thin, do not require any batteries, and can last for years without replacement.

They’re also cheaper, with 40 RFID tags costing less than one Bluetooth tag.

GearEye in all its glory

The current version of the app allows users to add 30 items in one list, up to a maximum of five lists per user. Future versions won’t have any restrictions, but there’s no timeline on when that might happen.

GearEye has raised US$290,000 from a combination of government grants and angel investors in Israel. Yulia says the project will go ahead even if the Kickstarter campaign fails to achieve its target.

“We will market GearEye to other areas where people also tend to lose their stuff or need to manage their items – frequent travellers, extreme sport lovers, people with ADHD, impaired vision, or memory problems,” she affirms.

This post They kept losing their stuff. So they built a device to help others like them appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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