Lost keys? Microsoft will use AR to find it

A recently published patent application from Microsoft details how technology could be used to track the "moveable inanimate physical object." However, there are a number of object tracking solutions like RFID tags or Bluetooth trackers, Microsoft is trying to patent a much higher-tech system using Augmented reality. So next time you lose your keys, Microsoft's suggests an AR device might help you find them.

This "OBJECT TRACKING" application reveals that AR device like Hololens would scan your surroundings and keep tabs on objects like keys, wallets or other things. Once you fail to find something, it will guide you straight to where it saw it last.

So it is "a head-mounted display device, comprising a sensor subsystem comprising an image sensor" which will go on "to determine the potential other locations based on patterns of user interactions with the moveable inanimate physical object." In some cases, if it is covered by other objects it'll "highlight on the see-through display" when you ask where they are.

As the application suggests, "in this manner, a user may be able to discover a most recent location of lost keys, may be provided with a reminder to buy more milk while browsing the dairy section at a grocery store, and/or may track and recall other object state information in any suitable manner." Also, just to remind, keys might not be just keys but any other misplaced 'item' like a wallet aswell.

The device "may adaptively learn which objects to track" by determining their importance, presumably by some kind of AI scheme. However, all this is at a very early stage, the scope and possibilities of AR and AI have just been discovered. The patent was filed in September 2016 and shows the direction in which Microsoft is thinking. Not all patent applications see the light of the day as real products.

But if this one does, there will be so many people thanking Microsoft for it.