Wheels of Zeus (or WoZ) was a company founded in 2001 by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. WoZ made wireless hardware for keeping track of the physical location of enabled objects. The licensable technology consisted of three components:
- Smart Tag A tag containing GPS that could be attached to various objects, such as a brief case or pet. "Acceptable areas" could be preprogrammed, such that the tag would signal the Tag Detector when it was moved outside them. The tag communicated over a wireless network was named "wOzNet" and leveraged GPS techniques to transmit the tag's position over extreme distances with very little power.
- Tag Detector This was a handheld device that could monitor a collection of Smart Tags, and provide a distance and direction to help locate them when they were lost. It also communicated with the wOz Service when a Smart Tag was lost.
- WoZ Service An internet based service that could provide the locations of the various Smart Tags, as well as send an email or SMS notification when a Smart Tag moved outside of its "acceptable area".
In March 2006, Wheels of Zeus shut down operations. Key assets and patents have been acquired by ZonTrak.
Famous quotes containing the words wheels of, wheels and/or zeus:
“I compare her
to a fallen leaf.
The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“You utilitarians, you too love everything useful only as a vehicle of your inclinations—you too really find the noise of its wheels intolerable?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The squabbles of philandering Zeus and shrewish Hera are the Greeks’ comment on married life.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)