GPS homing device gets you back where you started, nowhere else

If there's one problem with modern GPS devices it's that they're "highly complex" -- at least that's what you might think if you're a frequent Hammacher Schlemmer shopper. Believing that people find things like touch screens or buttons a little too much, the gadget company has created what it calls a "GPS Homing Device." For a penny under $80 (roughly the price of a real nav system) the over-sized key fob lets you mark your current location and then, after an exhausting day of bargain hunting, find your way back to where you began just by following an arrow -- all without relying on the help of the parking lot attendant. Makes a great gift for the directionally-challenged shopaholic in your life.

[Via Chip Chick]

[OneLove @ Dec 17th 2008 11:15AM]

Are we that lost today that we need every manner of gps on every device?

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 17th 2008 11:17AM]

It is not really that every consumer needs to have a GPS, but rather the government would like to keep track of every citizen...

Oh, what's that dangling from my windo...

[Flashpoint @ Dec 17th 2008 1:11PM]

I can think of at least 20 situations this would be neccessary.
During Blizzards, in Jungles/Forests and in Deserts are just a few of them.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Dec 17th 2008 2:10PM]

Did Mobius get high-ranked for promoting the fallacy that the government somehow can track you via your GPS *receiver*? Or was he just joking? Inquiring minds want to know.

[dan @ Dec 17th 2008 3:46PM]

If you're the kind of person who believes that the government can track you via your GPS device, you're also the kind of person whom the government would not ever bother to track!

[jupiterthunder @ Dec 17th 2008 5:32PM]

@Wwhat

I believe the correct phrasing is "what is this 'newspaper' you speak of?"

[Wwhat @ Dec 20th 2008 3:29PM]

True true jupiterthunder, that would be more clean, but I think the message wasn't completely lost fortunately and it keeps things from getting dull when you don't use the familiar lines at least.

[Jash Sayani @ Dec 17th 2008 11:18AM]

Was just reading a newspaper article on how the GPS calculates the positing... It obtains 4 equations and solves them simontaneously to calculate the exact latitudinal and longitudinal positing.... Interesting !!

[Bill @ Dec 17th 2008 12:34PM]

Don't know if your post was in jest or not, but it made me laugh.

[Wwhat @ Dec 17th 2008 1:14PM]

WTF is a 'newspaper'?

[OneLove @ Dec 17th 2008 3:35PM]

you wipe your ass with it when in the jungle.

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 17th 2008 7:01PM]

Um.. sort of. The primary component of the GPS system is highly-accurate timing via atomic clocks on the satellites. Your GPS receiver receives transmissions from each satellite that contain the local time the signal was sent (we are talking in microseconds here) and it's position in space. By finding the difference between the timestamp on the incoming data and the current time, the GPS receiver determines how far away the satellite is (seconds * 299,792,458 meters/s = xxx meters). Combine this data with similar data from multiple other satellites, and it can triangulate it's own position on earth.

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 17th 2008 7:02PM]

oh yeah.. 299,792,458 meters/s is the speed of light.

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 17th 2008 7:05PM]

oh and one more thing. The GPS system would be totally inaccurate if the engineers didn't take into account relativistic (see Einstein) effects from the satellites traveling so fast in orbit. Basically, the satellites are experiencing actual time dilation... that is, the time that they experience in orbit is actually going by at a slower rate compared to that of ours on earth. Crazy stuff indeed...

[Eli @ Dec 17th 2008 11:21AM]

I saw this in a local store for around $50, and at that price it's actually pretty cool. Sure I've got a regular GPS, and a car GPS, but I think this fills an important niche. Not everyone needs graphic, topo maps, and waypoints. I think it opens up the market to people who wouldn't normally use a GPS, and if it saves even one life, it's an awesome product.

[paragraph @ Dec 17th 2008 11:23AM]

this could be useful, i mean, in those big parking lots, large public gatherings (concerts, games etc. find your seat)

but not $80 useful.

$25 useful.

Also requires function other than GPS so it's not a total waste

also needs to be smaller

you know what, this product just needs to not be itself and i'll be cool with it, so, you know, get on that

[Casper42 @ Dec 17th 2008 1:11PM]

I was thinking the same thing.

Definitely useful for that trip to Disneyland/world.

$80 on the other hand.....

You can get some cell phones now a days with GPS for $80 (With contract, blah blah blah)

[Othello @ Dec 17th 2008 2:02PM]

Well Hammacher marks most of their stuff up by a large margin, so just look for it elsewhere and you'll probably find it cheaper.

[tiuk @ Dec 18th 2008 8:25PM]

I'd pay a few bucks for a cell phone app that does the same thing.

[Maestro @ Dec 17th 2008 11:24AM]

Perfect for when I'm leaving an NFL game and trying to find my car in the parking lot!

[paul smith @ Dec 17th 2008 1:51PM]

i did just that when leaving a nascar race, although i was using my tomtom (which also doubled up pretty good as a torch)

[Jason @ Dec 18th 2008 2:01AM]

I call BS! No Nascar fan ever called a flashlight a torch!

[rotinoma @ Dec 17th 2008 11:24AM]

Good for hiking.

[Peter @ Dec 17th 2008 11:53AM]

...until it leads you back in a straight line, right over a cliff.

[JamesR @ Dec 17th 2008 11:25AM]

This would actually be useful for dirt biking in the NJ Pine Barrens. There are no real roads for a GPS to track and the place is huge (about 6200 sq/miles). Getting back to your starting point is not always easy.

$80 wouldn't seem that expensive when really lost :).

[dpo @ Dec 17th 2008 11:40AM]

I feel like I've seen that Sopranos episode...

[Soylent @ Dec 17th 2008 11:29AM]

This seems perfect for hiking or camping. Places where a turn by turn nav system is going to be useless. Hell, it would be good for me because my neighborhood isn't on any GPS nav system that I know of.

[Bill @ Dec 17th 2008 12:36PM]

Where do you live? Area 51?

[drew @ Dec 17th 2008 11:30AM]

It would be good for getting back to the hotel when traveling.

[Joshua Walters @ Dec 17th 2008 11:36AM]

I would say this would be more useful for the outdoorsy type. Like a hunter who goes DEEP into the woods, but parks his car a mile back. Or a backpacker who decides they are going to go off looking on a new trail, but ends up lost.

Of course I doubt this particular device has the strength to gather a signal under a canopy of trees, so its probably useless.

[stuff @ Dec 17th 2008 11:40AM]

To be fair to Hammacher Schlemmer, they're not the manufacturer of the product, as alluded to in the article. They're just the retailer selling it.

[TheCow5 @ Dec 17th 2008 11:51AM]

I've been lost two times while hiking. and once in the kayak, I must say one of those times I was hiking I did wish I had stayed on the trail lol,
this may have one flaw for hikers, that being; it tells you where you came from but not how to get there. think about it, it does not take you to the trail but I believe the shortest distance between two points (where you are and where you came form), there could be a river or a lake between you and where you came from.

nice try but there are better hiking GPS trail gadgets out there but a bit larger.

[Boarderwoot @ Dec 17th 2008 12:28PM]

You hike in a Kayak? You must have really strong arms.

[TheCow5 @ Dec 17th 2008 3:41PM]

LOL that would be a true Irom Man activity.
those are to separate activity. have u ever taken you kayak out and made some bends that u actually can remember which fork on the river you took. after a couple hours you start realizing how truly small you really are.

[linuxamp @ Dec 17th 2008 10:46PM]

You are right. It should support point tagging turning points (waypoints) so that you can get back to the starting point not in a straight line but in the same line that you took to get there. That single feature would greatly increase the usefulness of the device while still keeping it very simple.

[El Taco @ Dec 17th 2008 11:41PM]

That's by design, because the only way to save multiple points is to buy multiple devices.

[Geqxon @ Dec 17th 2008 12:12PM]

Hikers are better off using a Garmin eTrex. It records your location every 5 seconds, and has a trackback option, showing you the path you just took. This way, it's very easy to go back to where you came from.

[Wolfsvein @ Dec 17th 2008 12:13PM]

I think this device would be good for older people who loose there way. Anyone with Alzheimer would be a good candidate, and would be even be a better product if it had the tracking GPS feature for finding people. Wouldn't it be great to be able to incorporated this with myspace for the myspace stalkers!!!!! j/k

[Bill @ Dec 17th 2008 12:39PM]

"I appear to be lost...hello, yellow kitty! I am lost...where did I put my GPS wheelie thing? I wish I could remember..."

[wsnideman @ Dec 17th 2008 12:58PM]

If you had Alzheimers, how whold you remember when to go back, or where back is? Heck, how would you remember how to use the device?

[wolfsvein @ Dec 17th 2008 1:02PM]

Think about it they don't always forget everything unless they are in an advanced stage, and by that time they are under the care of someone.

[Kali4 @ Dec 17th 2008 2:10PM]

Actual conversation between my wife, neighbor, and I after I got home from work one day:

Wife: We went on a nice bike ride today.
Me: Oh yeah? Where to?
Neighbor: We covered about five or six miles. Went down to the corner, followed the street up to a trail. We took the trail to it's end and came out by the, uh, umm... What was that facility again? An old folks home, hospital, or was it...
Wife: You mean the Alzhiemers clinic?
Me & Wife: HAHAHAHAHAhHahahahahaha! AhahahahahahahAHAHAHhahaa!

[decypher44 @ Dec 17th 2008 12:27PM]

Dammit!!!!! I had this idea a couple of years ago. In fact, the device looks almost identical to what I had sketched. Of course, I never did anything about it. Oh, well.

[Nerd Ferguson @ Dec 17th 2008 12:31PM]

I said the same exact thing when the iPhone came out.

[decypher44 @ Dec 17th 2008 12:30PM]

I actually had another idea of doing this, but on the flip side of a key fob. I was thinking of making deals with major auto manufactures and jointly develop the GPS Key Fob. Why, of why, do I never go through with my ideas???

[Razor @ Dec 17th 2008 12:30PM]

I can see the confusion as a soccer mom's SUV 'rounds a corner on the way home from the mall, and starts pointing them in the wrong direction.

[Jason @ Dec 17th 2008 12:32PM]

Okay campers! Time to hike back! Now how to work this-ah here's the button, "Get home" oh wait, no my mistake-that said "Set home." Ok, now we're ready -- Oh look, we're already there!

[Magallanes @ Dec 17th 2008 12:39PM]

May be it is a product for children and people with Alzheimer's disease.

[SiXiam @ Dec 17th 2008 12:52PM]

I think this would be good to help find my car in the middle of a crowded parking lot...

[Jay Evans @ Dec 17th 2008 1:05PM]

What happens if I can't remember what floor of the garage I parked on? Is there an up and down arrow....... : P