WAY

At crowded events, it is easy to lose sight of friends and family. Toronto's World Cup watch parties and summer street festivals made that clear to me. Find My can be too imprecise to help you spot someone nearby, especially when cell service is unreliable.

At Guelph homecoming, I kept getting separated from my friends. Music, shouting, and a crowd of people who looked familiar made finding them harder than I expected. With no cell service, I needed a way to tell which direction to walk.

The idea came to me when I was locked out of a friend's apartment. WAY is a compact, affordable friend-finding compass designed to clip onto a keychain. After connecting with friends, you would select a person and follow a visual direction indicator and proximity lights to find them.

• A bright arrow and 12-segment LED ring point toward the selected friend.
• Illuminated distance marks show when you are getting closer.
• One button cycles between friends; holding it sends an SOS alert to the group.
• Vibration confirms selections and provides feedback without a speaker.
• A thin, bead-blasted recycled aluminum body is designed to feel solid while weighing less than 42 grams.
• An impact-resistant translucent polycarbonate face protects the display.
• An integrated loop attaches to keys, a bag, or a lanyard.
• Bluetooth connects the compass to a phone for setup.
• A proposed sub-GHz radio and GNSS system would share locations without cellular service.

WAY is a design concept. Its weight, cost, radio range, and location accuracy are targets that still need hardware testing.