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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."
That'll come next :)
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
A leash.
Does your 8 year old need alot of privacy at Legoland? What would they be doing which would warrant the parents not knowing where they are?
Well, it's about time for kids to start wearing tinfoil hats.
The IT section color scheme sucks.
At Legoland?
Seriously? What could an ADULT do at Legoland that would require privacy?
This works only WITHIN THE GROUNDS at Legoland.
Eh?? Wouldn't a Paedophile follow their target around waiting for a moment of parent's in-attention? How would knowing the coordinates help this? Besides the parents could always register their cell phone numbers upon entry to the park. Not to mention only the parents are going to have their childId to lookup the location.
See my sig for why I think this kind of paranoia about technology is rediculous.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
Doesn't this just provide paedos with a free kiddie tracking system?
Yes, because otherwise, kids are so hard to find at LEGOLAND
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.
OK, you're right :). Until all cities have one wifi connection covering it, not much of a privacy concern- but just to clear up something:
it doesn't only work at legoland. this page says that "Bluesoft's Aeroscout(TM) wireless LAN location system is a novel technology platform that location-enables a standard Wi-Fi wireless network". So even if you have the tag and the location system, it would only work within a Wi-Fi connection (and that's ANY wi-fi area, NOT just legoland's)
I see no privacy concerns at all. I fact I think this is the PERFECT application for this type of technology that keeps the Tinfoil hat crowd up all night:
-It doesn't work everywhere, only in the park
-It's temporary
-You have to opt in
-It's actually useful
The only drawback is that someone who is already a "Bad Parent" might use this as an opportunity to not keep an eye on their child.
I see what you mean, scary stuff. "Excuse me sir, but could you put on this wristband? Perfectly innocent, I assure you." Then the hapless fool walks away, oblivious to the fact that, as long as he stays within range of the Legoland WiFi system, some nefarious evildoer can track his every move. Creepy.
I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
Hahaha! Hohoho! Heeheehee!
You don't have kids, do you?
The cake is a pie
parent frantically types out SMS message on cel phone, waits in agony for response...