There are several devices out there that focus on finding your lost items once you realise by yourself that they are missing. Some of them use very similar Bluetooth Low Energy technology. THE O is completely different. It is proactive and tells you the very moment you are losing something.

It also runs automatic checks for the essential items that you need when you leave your house (wallet, keys, medicine for some people). And will let you know if something is missing. Like a virtual PA. It can also understand that in some places, your items are safe but it reminds you to get them when you leave the vicinity. For example, you won't forget a jacket you left at the coat check when you leave a museum.

Based on feedback and requests from the Kickstarter campaign, we will continue to add AI features that will help people organise and take care of their belongings. Making sure you have your gym bag for yoga class, your passport for your flight and your umbrella when it rains later in the day, for example.

We also feel like we have prioritised design, look and feel more than other devices have. One of our founders was a jewellery designer and worked in the fashion industry for 10 years. THE O is smaller and thinner than many devices out there which also increases the range of use. We have designed a beautiful key chain attachment and you can also sew THE O on to the lining of your jacket or umbrella (it is waterproof) It also has an 18 month battery life.

If you miss our alert then THE O app stores the location of where the item was last seen.

THE O is for Octopus. An animal we love for its superior ability to cling onto things and to perfectly blend into its environment by changing its shape, texture and color. That is why we launched on the 8th September, at 8am CET : )

The app runs on iOS and Android

There is no theoretical limit to how many devices you can register on your phone. When you are out and about, stable performance is no problem with up to 8 items that you carry with you. The user interface is designed such that everything still looks nice with up to 16 items.

We hope that thanks to THE O, you will never have to track down lost items, because you will be notified the very moment it happens. To be double-safe, we do always store the location of each of your now-smart-belongings the very moment you leave them somewhere, be it at home or in the bar. For everything you don't have with you, you can see on a map where and when you left it.

No. Gladly, no internet connection is required for loss protection!

Yes. And we understand very well that this is still uncommon for many people. To save the phone's battery we use the Bluetooth Low Energy standard and we have developed algorithms that further minimize consumption. This will remain a focus topic for us. At the same time, we have seen drastic improvements from Apple, Samsung and other phone manufacturers in handling Bluetooth communication efficiently. We are convinced, this will soon be no concern anymore.

Only if you want to. Most people prefer to consider their home, their office or their friend's places as safe. THE O will go silent in these safe places. Once you leave, however, it will check if you have all your essentials with you.

Our priority is to keep this as simple and intelligent as possible. In our launch version, you only tell THE O what you consider essential, something you always want to have with you. And you can restrict this to certain days (e.g. weekdays). After that everything happens auto-magically. We want to use our early backers to tell us what specific problems you want to have solved.

Yes, of course. We have had a lot of parents, who want to use THE O for their children in crowded spaces to get alerted immediately when they get out of reach. We consider it safely designed and it holds very firmly when sewn onto fabrics. But as with most objects, special care has to be taken when used around children, but there are no particular known dangers as long as the device is not disassembled with force or swallowed.

Yes, of course. A couple of dog owners said they wanted to use it in open spaces to make sure they would get alerted if their dog strayed away too far.

Yes. Right now, the same device can be freely used by as many people as you wish. But only by one person at a time. We have received great inputs for sharing already, with room mates, spouses or family. Please let us know what you would like to be able to do!

Yes. Our design objective was that THE O could be used in any outdoor setting. In engineering terms, it is IPX6 waterproof. That means, it was tested in our factory to survive 100 litres of water. Per minute. From all directions and for 3 minutes.

Yes. We had many stories of people losing their jacket or their scarf. We thought about all the options to fix THE O on fabrics, including velcro, magnets and little metal claws. At the end, all fashionistas agreed that directly sewing it on would be the greatest solution. Christian had one fixed on a jacket by his dry cleaner. Where do you sewn it on? Please let us know!

It is small. Very small. About 4mm x 39mm x 29mm. We have shaved off practically everything we could. To make it significantly smaller, someone has to invent much improved batteries or some other source of energy needs to be used.

"1. Slip it in - your wallet, a zip lock compartment of your bag or luggage, your shopping bag
2. Stick it on with our adhesives - your phone charger, laptop, camera lens cover, passport, portable speakers
3. Sew it on - your jacket, scarf, umbrella
4. Hang it on - your keychain, bag, backpack
--> something THE O does not work for very well? Let us know, we'll fix it!

THE O uses BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to connect to the app on your smart phone.

There is a broad consensus among independent scientist all over the world that BLE is safe and that there are no adverse health effects.

Yes! We love colors. And we want you and all our backers to get involved in making a nice color palette.

We have asked several dry cleaners to do it for us and it worked well. Alternatively, you may want to just slip it into one of the pockets.

Yes, we work together with a certified manufacturer.

It is a small coin cell battery, CR 2025 specifically

No. Our first version is designed to last a very long time. We expect 18 month under normal circumstances. Afterwards, we will help you recycle and replace devices.

We don’t have an API yet. But we like the idea of it and agree though and strongly consider to offer this in the future.