Stolen Laptop Alarms

torok writes "Three Engineering students from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, Canada have developed a laptop alarm complete with remote pager that detects if your laptop is being moved and sounds an alarm. The article is a bit sketchy on details, but it sounds like a cool idea."

Comments

Funny story

[jargoone]

I went to a university that installed PCs in each dorm room. This was 6-8 years ago, so maybe it's more common now, but at the time it was pretty revolutionary and cool. Anyway, a friend-of-a-friend brought his own PC to school and decided he didn't want the university's PC cluttering up his room. So he unhooked it and took it to another friend's place, off campus (not with the intention to steal, just relocate for the year). This other friend had DSL. 15 minutes after putting it on the DSL connection, tne university police department was at the door.

In theory, I know why this could happen, and actually thought it was pretty funny because it was a stupid thing to do. But obviously, there was some sort of "call home" software. Anyone know for sure?

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[nodwick]

The creators say exactly the same thing:

The beauty of the electronic beast, according to Mitchell, is it allows the laptop owner to be mobile, which is, after all, the whole idea of laptops. There are few false alarms because of the deactivating device and the distance required between the laptop and its owner (about 15 feet) before the gizmo works.

"There are lots of systems out there that have just a thing that detects motion, so it blasts a siren just like the car alarms that no one listens to these days," said Mitchell.

What they don't say is how their device solves the problem. As far as I can tell, when it goes off, it still makes the same annoying sounds.

I disagree that loud laptop alarms won't be effective because they're unnoticed -- after all, the places they'd be used would most likely be study areas or libraries, which are typically very quiet. A 105 decibel alarm in such an area would certainly get people's attention. The problem is that it'd be terribly obnoxious as well. Personally, I think if someone did use one of these somewhere like a library, it'd work great scaring off the would-be thief but not so great against the subsequent mob coming to bash it into silence with textbooks and binders ...

Re:What it doesn't do

[rampant mac]

"Remote tracking"

That reminds me of a story... Some guy tracked down a stolen iMac using Applescript and Timbucktu.

It's actually an interesting read to see how this guy traced an iMac stolen from his sister's home.

A SERIOUS, EASY WAY TO DEFEAT...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

I've seen this done easily with motion detectors like this one all the time.

1) Slip Zip-Lock under and around alarm.

2) Poor some water into bag, just enough to cover alarm.

3) Enjoy laptop.

You would be surprised just how easyily a lot of electonics are defeated with water. Nice idea, but it needs to be made water proof/resistant.

Re:What it doesn't do

[cerberusss]

Someone broke into his car while on a business trip, left the CDs, DVDs, etc. and took the computer

I'm working at a consulting company, i.e. programmer-for-hire. This is a MAJOR problem. Thieves are on the lookout for your laptop and they are not easily scared. We've had several stories: people going for a cup of coffee - laptop gone. People coming home, unloading groceries, coming back for the laptop - gone.

We've even had people who walked to their car, opened the passenger's side and put their laptop in. Then walked to the other side of the car and go and sit behind the wheel, just to see a hand grabbing their laptop. Thugs actually waited on the carpark waiting for people to get into their cars!!! You have to be extremely paranoid nowadays.