Running a class on Arduino, student wants to make a phone locator?

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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Wondering about the general feasibility of a student's project. He wants to make a locator that would allow him to find his phone in his room if the battery is dead and he's unable to find it. In theory, he would have some kind of Arduino board set up, with two blinking buttons. One would indicate that it's near him and the other would flash if he's pointing it in the direction of the phone. Essentially he'd be playing hot and cold with his phone. I'm pretty new to Arduino coding, but I really like the creativity of the project and was wondering if anyone had seen anything similar done or tried anything like this. Thanks in advance

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Tell us more about your theory.

Paul

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Interesting project to detect a dead phone. Paint the phone using some smelling paint and use a smell detector. Could tell "near" but not direction.

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For students: Put some pot into the phone. Then call the police to find drugs in your home.

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Paul_KD7HB:
Tell us more about your theory.

Paul

I don't really have much of a theory, it seems a little complex and I can't seem to find anything similar

Railroader:
Interesting project to detect a dead phone. Paint the phone using some smelling paint and use a smell detector. Could tell "near" but not direction.

That sounds really interesting, I'll talk to him about that

DrDiettrich:
For students: Put some pot into the phone. Then call the police to find drugs in your home.

Probably not going to be allowed in a 9th grade class but I like the creativity

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More serious: put an RFID tag onto whatever objects you want to retrieve. Such tags don't require a battery, they live from the energy emitted by the RFID reader.

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DrDiettrich:
More serious: put an RFID tag onto whatever objects you want to retrieve. Such tags don't require a battery, they live from the energy emitted by the RFID reader.

Within 1/2 inch.

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"... if the battery is dead and he's unable to find it".

You mean something attached to the phone? Like Tile?

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498×526 85.2 KB

Trying to find an unpowered device appears very hard to do.

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You know the anti-theft tags detected on exit from a shop? That works over much more than an inch.

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DrDiettrich:
You know the anti-theft tags detected on exit from a shop? That works over much more than an inch.

Looking at the "check points" their distance to the anti-theft tag will be some 20 inches, not much more.