How to Track a Lost Laptop

Nov. 15 -- You've lost your laptop at the airport. How in the world are you going to find it? Or perhaps you're worried your prized new home entertainment system is vulnerable to theft? Or that your child's pricey new bicycle might go missing in the neighborhood?

No problem, say some in the burgeoning business of electronic tracking. A built-in chip can locate them for you.

In the future, for instance, you may be able to buy a laptop with a built-in device that enables you to keep track of its whereabouts through the Global Positioning System (GPS). So, if someone has walked away with your computer, you'll know where to look. Or you could put tracking devices in that high-end television or expensive bicycle.

Indeed, while a good deal of popular attention on tracking technology has focused in the past on its controversial use to keep tabs on people — including parolees, children and the elderly — many in the industry are also taking a long look at how tracking devices might be used with inanimate objects.

It's a market dubbed "Silent Commerce" by the Chicago-based consulting firm Accenture, which is among the most bullish companies about the possibility of the new technologies. Silent commerce, claims a recent Accenture report, "is potentially as revolutionary as the Internet and World Wide Web."

While that's a bolder claim than some in the industry are willing to make, many do believe tracking devices has a bright future.

What Is 'Silent Commerce'?

"We're really at the first stages of figuring out the possible applications," says Matthew Cossolotto, a spokesman for Applied Digital Solutions of Florida. ADS specializes in devices used to track people using GPS, which was made legal for commercial use by the Clinton administration in early 2000.

Another popular tracking system is the Radio Frequency Identification method, or RFID, which uses radio waves to identify objects via tiny labels on them, but has a shorter range than GPS.

Currently, RFID devices are already used in a number of areas, from the E-Z Pass tags some cars use to pass through toll booths on the East Coast to the chips runners put on their shoes when competing in a marathon.