Monday, October 22, 2007

GPS tracker jackets keep track of kids

Man! The parents in Britain are paranoid!

The asset's coordinates are longitude -0.098610, latitude 51.519699. At least that's what the read-out on my computer screen says. I've never heard my son, Robbie, described as an asset before, but I guess there's a first time for anything. Two minutes later, I get an update. He's barely moved, since he's walking at an unbelievable 1.1 mph. It's definitely him. No one else can dawdle like that. I switch the screen over to a Google Earth satellite map and follow his return to the building.

Robbie is wearing one of the first GPS tracker jackets, launched this week in the UK by Blade Runner, the clothing manufacturer that specialises in equipment for the police and security services and which recently brought out the first school uniform in slash-proof Kevlar, in partnership with Asset Monitoring Solutions (AMS), a market leader in tracking and security technologies.

[...]

The small rechargeable device - it has a 15-hour battery - fits neatly into a pouch inside the jacket. You switch it on when you leave the house and what you get is nothing less than the ability to know where someone is - within four square metres - anywhere in the world. You can watch them move, check where they've been and get updates every 10 seconds. You don't even need to be permanently logged on to your computer, as you can have email alerts sent to your Blackberry or text messages to your mobile.
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It's £250 and you can buy a Kevlar lining for 80 more and it will cost 10 a month extra for the satellite tracking.

Related Post:
Kevlar-Lined School Uniforms