Slashdot Mirror
GPS Wristwatch for Kids
1010011010 writes "A company called 'Wherify Wireless' has created a $400 watch with a built-in pager, GPS unit and wireless data connectivity. It's targeted at families with kids. According to their website, 'Wherify's GPS Personal Locator helps keep loved ones safe by combining Wherify's patented technology with the U.S. Department of Defense's multi-billion dollar Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites plus the largest 100% digital, nationwide PCS wireless network.' It includes a pager, clock, two-button '911' calling (parent can disable this), and remote-control keyfob (to lock and unlock it) for the parents. It is apparently water- and kid-resistant, and can be locked onto the wrist so that it cannot be removed (easily). $400 plus $35 a month... that's a lot more money than those stretchy wrist-leashes I see at the mall." There are so many things wrong with this that I don't even know where to begin.
I don't think that the locking is intended to stop the child removing the beacon; rather, I think the idea is to ensure that any abductor would not be able to remove it.
e d-by-a-paedophile market, I'd say that the locking makes perfect sense.
Given that most of the market for such gadgets comes from the oh-no-my-child-is-going-to-be-abducted-and-tortur
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Here in Finland we give our kids a cell phone. If they need to call home, they call home. If the parents need to call their kids, they can call their kids.
A friend of mind, father of a teenager, has a deal with his kid. He provides the phone + pays the bills (you can set a limit to that as well), as long as the kid promises to answer the phone when his father calls. If not rightaway --nobody should be forcedly tied to the phone-- then within reasonable time.
Even a one-or-two-character SMS message will do;
. = yes
! = sure! or, look behind you! i'm already here
From page 1 of your link: "An analysis of data on 1,214 juvenile kidnapings from the jurisdictions in 12 States that participated in NIBRS in 1997 reveals the following: "
1214 is the number of kidnappings in a few jurisdictions in 12 states. Nice statistic spinning there.
There's a HUGE problem with this device that the creators obviously didnt put any research or thought into....
GPS does not work inside or in a metal car. so unless little johhny is kept outside and long enough with the GPS antenna in the unit pointing skyward for 2 minutes while the GPS reciever get's a lock it is 100% worthless.
The idea is great, and as a parent I would love for one of these things (actually a two way pair!) for places like cedar point,disney,the Cape, the beach, the park etc... anything that will allow me to give my 10 yuear old some freedom that I enjoyed in the 70's that you cannot do now because the ratio of sickos/idiots to normal has over tripled (and we are more socially accepting of the sickos now too... Mr, dan is just exercizing his freedom to do ritualistic killings of children, how dare we opress his beliefs!)
but gps sucks giant potatoes anywhere that is not a clear open sky with high quality equipment... and I highly doubt they use a 12 channel GPS reciever with a high gain antenna and top quality reciever section.. (which cost me $1200.00 for my boat) in a $400.00 RETAIL device.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I saw a story on the local news about this product and it does work indoors. They have their own PCS network that works with the GPS to track the location even without a clear view of the sky. If you dig into the web site far enough the information is there as well.
This thing is actually a 2-way device like a cell phone. We all know it doesn't take GPS to find the location of a transmitter. If your phone will work there, this thing can be located.
Now Im not saying the tech isn't possible, or that you will not see devices like this in the future, along with the moral and social implecations of such technology blah blah blah.
Rather that it sounds close enough to that scam to insure that one should run to the hills as fast as you can. Just as you would if they were trying to sell you broadband over powerlines or tiled LCD screens.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
Hint: no challenge + no risk = no growth.
sPh
Whack the kid over the head from behind; remove watch at leisure. [etc]
The website clearly says that interfering with the device automatically initiates a tracking of the last location of the device and informs the parents.
possible abuses, not by law enforcement, but by psychotic parents
Again, RTFM. The parents must specifically request for the child to be tracked--I don't think they're going to sit in front of their computer and on the phone, constantly requesting for child tracking. No doubt this is only used for stress situations, like an alarm company does--my 10 year old was supposed to walk to my neighbor's house, and is nowhere to be found, etc. I don't think any parent's going to be locking these Pikachu-looking devices on a 17 year old's wrist. And if they are, the kid definately has bigger problems to worry about than privacy.
Look, all doubters who love to flame based on Michael's half-baked criticism, just read the damn web pages for these stories before you go on an orgy of digital/children's rights protesting.
http://www.navtechgps.com/seminars/sem218.aspt p://www.globallocate.com/o m/
ht
http://www.snaptrack.c
The keys are - more correlators and wireless aiding.
You can increase the integration time to over a minute and it doesn't require that you remain absolutely stationary. You can't increase _coherent_ integration beyond 20 ms however.
If you don't use it, it costs nothing, but if you're really in trouble, you can call any number you want, and pay only for what you use.
It was called SA. The Gvmt turned SA off a couple of years ago - there was even a story about it here. But even without SA, the GPS signal isn't good enough to get better than about 5-10m. Enter differential GPS. These are an additional set of sattelites that know their position exactly. They monitor the GPS network and then send out separate corrections to the GPS signals. This allows for much greater vertical accuracy, and gives a 1-5m accuracy.
Cheers!