British company releases GPS-enabled jackets for high tech parenting
A British clothing company has released GPS-enabled jackets to help parents keep track their children’s location or at least their children’s expensive jacket.
The jacket, released by Bladerunner, has a build-in global positioning system (GPS) device in the lining that can track it worldwide. It also comes with a rechargeable battery that could service up to 18 hours.
Adrian Davis, a partner at Bladerunner, told AP that “The jacket was originally made for mountain climbers, skiers and snowboarders.”
However, he added that the company decided to make a children’s version of the jacket aimed at parents concerned about their children’s safety.
By using Google’s mapping tools, tracker will know the jacket’s whereabouts within 43 square meters, with updates every 10 seconds. The jacket also has the ability to send alerts to the tracker via e-mail or cell phone when the jacket leaves a predetermined boundary.
The children’s jacket cost $500 while the adult version cost $700. In addition, another $20 will be charge monthly for the tracking service.
I consider this development as technology advancement and find it very helpful for mountain climbers, skiers and snowboarders but not so for children. First, the technology is battery dependent. The duration of tracking has a span of time limitation aside from the inconvenience of recharging the battery from time to time.
Second, children don’t wear jackets all the time. They don’t also wear the same jackets again and again. Besides, once they knew they’re being tracked, it’s so easy for them to let friends put on the jackets while they escape from the scene.
I’m sure this “tracking device idea for kids” will still evolve and hope it will become better the next time around.
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October 30th, 2007
My son Is autistic and has occasionally wandred off, I would seriously consider something like this.