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Legoland Introduces Wi-Fi Tracking for Kids
mindless4210 writes "Lego announced today the successful deployment of a full-scale child-tracking system within Legoland Billund in Europe. The tracking system, deployed by Bluesoft, Inc and KidSpotter, allows park visitors keep track of their children using one of the world's largest Wi-Fi tracking networks. The children must wear a wrist band with a Wi-Fi tag on it, and if they become separated, parents simply send a text message from their mobile phone, and receive an automated response giving them the accurate location of their child."
Wow, this sound like a great idea. The peace of mind for parents is great. Not to mention not having to use one of those horrible Child Leashes that make it look like you are taking your child for a walk.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
[this is reasonably political - feel free to ignore]
Whereas this is bound to be a 'good thing' (the cry 'child in trouble' is just about the most instinct-driven response any adult has), the signature is somethinng to be wary of.
Consider that analysis of people-in-crowds is pretty easy these days. Consider that tracking (after positive analysis) is again reasonably simple (I was doing it 15 years ago - the key is to track in feature-space (region features: circularity, RGB, connectivity, 1st- and 2nd-order parameters) rather than just using image intensity. Using relations between features gives you context and thus more contextual information).
Consider that if you can track individuals within crowds, and given a covert surveillance system (eg: London, UK) you can track indivduals from locality to locality. You can start to (automatically) build circles-of-trust where individuals who meet regularly are automatically associated.
Consider that biometric information is now being put forward (eg: fingerprints, DNA samples, Iris scans, head ratios (eye:nose:chin parameters) and other observable information) and encoded within a compulsory identity card
Consider the amalgamation of this automatic identification, automatic relation of associates, and automatic recognition of individuals. Consider the implications. And yet a "Labour" government (the "People's" party!) is putting this forward in the UK.
I am fortunate. I am planning to emigrate this year to the US from the UK - previously I thought the UK (despite the lack of consitution) had a reality more responsive to the people and their ideals than the US. No more. I am one of the lucky ones that Joseph "Blunkett" Stalin will have no hold over. I feel deeply for my erstwhile compatriots. Freedom, after all, is a state of mind, and mind control is a tool of (this UK) government.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Its a nice step up from the Leash that some mothers seem to employ upon thier crying 5 year olds.
I wonder how they'll get a wifi tracker out of a kids stomach?
Thats where some of my sisters lego ended up.
I'm normally opposed to this sort of thing, but in a place like a theme park this sounds great. Assuming that the tag could be hired from the theme park, you need only use it while you are there.
When you are in a place which the parent or the kid knows reasonably well, you can easily arrange a good meeting place if you get seperated, and the kid has a reasonable chance of finding it. OTOH, most people only go to a theme park occasionally: even if you do decide on a meeting place, you could easily get lost en route to it.
It could also help if the child is with the other (custodial) parent: the first parent can quickly check whether other parent is still queueing for a ride, or has gone onto designated meeting spot. Dh and I have tried using mobiles, but as dh's mobile is his work phone he is too likely to get work related calls for it to be particularly useful on his day off.
Which may be precisely the problem. "Peace of mind" causing parents to be inattentive, incautious, and careless. And when the systems goes down, as it inevitably will? Will there be civil liability, or will the parents have to sign a waiver of liability when they rent the wrist band for their child?
When the system goes down, will a child be lost, kidnapped, hurt, etc. that otherwise would not have been because his parents relied on the system instead of knowing that they, and only they were responsible for keeping track of their child?
Perhaps the analogy is a bad one, but this reminds me a bit of the problem national parks are having with people who *rely* on GPS and/or their cell phones to keep them out of trouble. No wilderness or outdoor skills, no ability to use a compass or read a map, and half of the time no jacket. But they figure as long as they have their cell phones, they'll be ok. And when they can't get reception, the battery goes dead, or they drop it.....
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
or you could just not have them wear the bracelet... this is OPTIONAL
I wonder how hard the wristbands would be to remove?
What's to stop kids from switching their wristbands?
I can't imagine being unable to find my kid, tracking him down, and finding some other kid instead.
My first thought was, "What, a CF card on each kid with a little microcontroller where you have to cha[r|n]ge the batteries every day?"
Then I looked at the website for the tags - 5 years worth of service, regular MAC address, only transmits occasionally, never receives.
Way geeky, I think. I'd like to know what kind of 802.11 packet they're transmitting!
Then I read the comments. Are all you guys privacy geeks, or what? What happened to all the "Cool technology! How'd they do that? etc" comments, consequences be darned (as in fixing holes in socks)
Ah well. So much for *real* geeks.
-Adam
Not at all exaggerated. Like you said, they can already track mass usage patterns in various ways. But now they can track where you go, personally.
You get all kinds of great things out of that. "People who eat hamburgers don't tend to ride the Crazy Lego Ship. Maybe it makes them feel sick? We should put less mayo on the burgers." Or perhaps people who shop in store XYZ don't tend to also shop in store ABC. Perhaps there is too wide an array of popular items in XYZ -- leading people to forgo any further shopping. This tells you you should move some of the popular items from store XYZ over to store ABC, and hike up all the prices a little bit. Since people arent' buying as much per location, they are less likely to notice a 3% price hike.
Maybe you find that people who walk past a certain ride are more likely to want to buy ice cream. This leads you to put more ice cream stands in that location. Maybe you're asking "Why the hell would a particular ride cause people to want ice cream?" Believe me, the company doesn't care why, but they'll sure as hell cash in on it.
The only reason you can't think of uses for this is because you (obviously) aren't the one getting paid to do it.