Theft Detection System for Portable Devices

A theft detection system based on a new patent appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office is likely to equip the future Apple devices, such as iPhone, iPod and perhaps laptops. The system for theft prevention consists of an acceleration sensor which detects the acceleration of a portable electronic device and a controller that analyzes this acceleration to check if a theft condition is present. In this case an alarm signal will be initiated.

The theft prevention system is equipped with a filter which may attenuate irrelevant acceleration frequencies and isolates the ones that represent the feature of a theft. There is also included a comparison hardware/software to determine whether the acceleration present is the one to match the profile characteristic of a theft. A graphical user interface is used to set various parameters of the theft prevention system.

The trend to minimize electronic devices has resulted in systems based on computers to make them more portable. Laptops, iPods from Apple Computer Inc., not to mention the compact disc players, are a living proof to the above statement. This easy to wear devices are also targets for thieves, so long as they are easy to wear for the owners, the same they are for the thieves. A current anti-theft system is currently represented by a simple mechanical lock that attaches to the housing of a device by means of a cable. This cable is wrapped around other objects so that it is fixed to the portable device. Thus the portable electronic gadgets can be tethered to fixtures that are close to the user. These models of anti-theft system prove to be uncomfortable to carry around due to the bulky cable and lock and mostly because there can not be convenient spots to tether to.

Therefore the need for theft detection system for portable devices that does not imply the use of additional cables and is available to function in different locations is more than welcomed. This new patent of the invention can be implemented in various ways, such as device, method, system, or computer readable medium. As a computer readable memory that includes instructions to direct an electronic system that provides theft protection, the device of the invention contains: an acceleration signal that has frequencies feature of movement, a set to process the acceleration signal in order to isolate the movement frequencies, a set to measure the frequencies, and a set to initiate an alarm based upon the measurements.

The inventor of this theft detection system for portable device is Paul J. Wehrenberg and he issued a graphic which shows a block diagram of a portable electronic device built in relation to an embodiment of the invention.