We all lose things

We all lose things. It's only natural. You lose things the same way you lose thoughts, or your place in a book. It's a basic fact of life that we can't remember everything.

Some things, like birth certificates, and savings bonds, need to go somewhere safe; somewhere you can remember. Unfortunately, these types of things are usually the type that might remain somewhere for a really long time. They might stay there so long that you move on to new "safe" places. This is a little long winded, so I'll cut right to what I want to say.

I wonder if there is a way to make some sort of cataloguing system to help with this problem. It would have to be extremely quick and easy, and require minimum "fussing" to use. I'd love it if it could be automated, but that's just a fantasy. I'm thinking, at this stage, that it might not even be a full indexing system, specifying locations of objects, but something that allows you to record what floor of the house an object resides in, or perhaps what corner of the floor. It doesn't need to eliminate searching altogether; it should just reduce the search area from a daunting "three floors plus attic" to "living room".

Naturally, we have to decide whether the system will be a manual update system, or some sort of machine assisted search. I'm thinking about the latter, and there's a glint in my eye as I type this. I envision a loose network of nodes that transmit to a central hub which keeps track of the locations of objects. Objects could sleep and "wake" on intervals, (say every day, or every few hours --perhaps it could be set by a potentiometer) "pulsing" to notify the hub of it's location. Perhaps they could interact with "mini-hub" nodes (like wireless APs to a wireless network) to determine their "room". (closest mini-hub signal?)

Perhaps it would be possible to attach some sort of small adhesive strip that emits specific RF frequencies, where frequencies would be tied to a particular object.

But, I'm out of time for this brainstorming session. I like how it sounds so far...