Chipolo, an item finder company that uses Bluetooth to find anything from car keys to wallets, has introduced a new Ocean Edition of its Chipolo One. The outer shell of the Bluetooth tracker is made from the plastic waste collected from the world's oceans that would otherwise accumulate and pose a threat to animals and habitats.
Chipolo worked with Oceanworks.co, a developer of products using recycled materials, to gather materials from fishing nets, trawls and ropes floating in the sea. This plastic waste is collected in the shallow areas of ocean near the shore line and turned into pellets to create the polypropylene plastic encasing for the Bluetooth item finder.
Chipolo One is a lightweight and water-resistant device that can attach to a variety of objects. The device notifies users where objects are up to a distance of 200 ft and the battery will last up to two years. When alerts go off, a loud 120 dB ring directs users to the location of the object. When paired with the app that comes with the Bluetooth tracker, the app will point and track items where the user last left them. Additionally, the device supports voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri to use voice commands to find objects attached to the Bluetooth device.
In January, Chipolo first introduced the Chipolo One at CES 2020 as an attachable Bluetooth tracker for phones, toys, keys and more. The Ocean Edition iteration would provide an environmentally friendly option. The company previously introduced a smart wallet technology that could track a lost wallet through a smartphone in a similar way.
