Thief-Proofing Your Laptop

Reported May 2006

PITTSBURGH (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- It's a nightmare that can happen in the blink of an eye. Your laptop is stolen, and chances are, it's not coming back. More than 700,000 laptops are stolen each year, but now electrical and computer engineers have a new, tiny motion sensor that tracks your laptop's every move.

"We're able to then tell you if the laptop really moving around the way it should be, or if it's been stolen by someone else," says Tsuhan Chen, Ph.D., an electrical and computer engineer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Advances in motion-sensing technology have made hunting down your missing or stolen valuables possible -- even for pocket-sized gadgets. The small sensor fits inside the laptop's circuitry. It automatically senses any movement and how fast it's moving. This alert is sent by a wireless signal to another computer or cell phone you designate.

Chen says, "Whether it's carried by you, or by someone else who is not supposed to carry the same laptop, then the sensors guess that information."

Researchers are also working on adding precise location information of the laptop to the alerts owner's would receive.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Chriss Swaney, Public Affairs
Carnegie Mellon University
(412) 268-5776

For more information about engineering:

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, D.C. 20036-5104
(202) 785-0017
ieeeusa@ieee.org
http://www.ieee.org

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