A "puzzling" wedding gift powered by GPS

A Texas-based software engineer has created a novel wedding gift that wouldn't seem out of place in The Da Vinci Code.

As a gift for friends who were wedding planning and moving to France, Mikal Hart designed a puzzle box that will only open when it is taken to a certain location, the Los Angeles Times reports.

To create the unusual present, Hart purchased a wooden box carved with elephant images and placed a GPS chip inside. On the top, he installed a digital screen and a push button.

The idea is that after the honeymoon is over, the recipients of the wedding gift will push the button on the box and view a message revealing a numerical distance.

Hart hopes his friend - who has an engineering background - will figure out that he should use the GPS data to aim to get closer to the ultimate destination.

It is only when the box arrives at a small island off the cost of France called Brehat that the box can be opened.

"What would be better than to get in a boat and go to the island to open the box?" Hart told the Times.

Hart has a website, Arduiniana.org, where he shares more details of the project, which is gaining buzz across the web.