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GPS-tracked Clothing
Anil Kandangath writes "A Japanese firm has shown off new technology that enables GPS units to be embedded in clothing that will enable the wearer to be tracked continuously. The device is thin enough to be tacked on unobtrusively and is powered by a thin watch battery. It is also capable of taking biometric measurements and transmitting them PCs and handheld devices. Though marketed as a device to enable people to keep track of spouses, how long before such technology becomes intrusive in our lives?" Like tracking your spouse is ok?. What a world! Update: 05/29 18:00 GMT by Z : Not actually real. A Contagious Media project. Please do not try to monitor your SO's panties.
"These panties can give you her location, and even her temperature and heart rate"
When you're hot, you're hot!
plus 58 days...
this is obviously fake ... slashdot editors do your homework.
IAAL
Now I can reach that panties that I forgot here on my bedroom.
http://www.michel.eti.br
It is also capable of taking biometric measurements and transmitting them PCs and handheld devices.
My biometric information will love to have a PC transmitted to it! Can I get one as well?James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
Oh comeon, that's ridiculous. If you have to track your spouse, then you have a lot more issues than you might think. Good relationships are built on trust, and if you can't trust the person, then all hope is lost.
Just walk outside of your house..
Go buy something...
Go for a drive..
Your privacy rights are already being exploited.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Though marketed as a device to enable people to keep track of spouses [...]
What exactly are spouses up to in Japan?
You don't need laws for this as:
- this story smells like a hoax: basic drawings without an explaination and "no one can order due to overwhelming demand"
- any women could sue the ass of her husband if someone was stupid enough to try it, no need for new laws.
To see how many hits you can generate?
forgetmenotpanties.
www.contagiousmedia.org
Deleted
This looks like the ultimate high-tech joke to me. Do you know of any biometric sensors that can go through laundry after laundry?
Have you ever had either a battery or a GPS sensor and antenna embedded in your shorts? There's not a good way to do this and make it "invisible" to the wearer, yet.
Nice leg pull, though.
Check the testimonials. PantyMap tracking software? Come on people, I don't buy it. Still, hoaxes are fun. |Anyone remember fufme.com?
I tested your comment by trying to order. The buttons are grayed out due to being "Sold out". A real biz would have just put your order on back order - like Amazon. I think you're right.
I can see a great new market for tinfoil hat manufacturers...
If kids were usually wearing such clothing, I guess the first thing the kidnappers would do when kidnapping a child would be to remove the clothing ...
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Really, what is the point of stalking them after you've married them?
Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
An easy solution to the age old question,
"Where are my pants?"
Pretty Pictures!
Remember that most people are sheep and just do as they are told.
So dont hold your breath on the revolt.. ( or the 2nd revolution here in this country )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Someone stole his wife's sweater, and the tracker on his PC showed she was out of state, as she was walking in the door.
She was wearing a blouse under it, you Slashdot pervs!
the age-old question of where socks go when they disappear from the wash!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
So with this thing I'll be able to tell when my next door neighbours husbands leaves for work? hmmm...
Well, at least I won't have to change anything in the way I normally kidnap small children.
Who wants a radio transmitter mounted that close to one's (or one's spouse's) genitals? The GPS itself might be a passive receiver (though its electronics make RF radiation), but sending the data to the tracking database requires transmission. Maybe if it also heats up and vibrates, the wearer might like it, but the longerm effects are too costly.
--
make install -not war
You mean you ain't tracking your spouse already??!
O wait, this is slashdot..!
you've made their chain too long.
Ok - at first I didn't realize this was a joke, but just a quick look at the advertized product gives it away.
;)
But even though this is a joke, the technology to achieve this isn't that far away. I'm going to be a parent in about 6 months, and while my kid is young, I wouldn't mind attaching a GPS to the kid. Of course, once he/she reaches a certain age, I will have to trust him/her. But until then, I'd be using such a device in a jiffy. I think... it's my first, so I don't know what to expect from having kids
Wow! I can't wait for the Google map add-on that lets me track these in my area! [/editors should check domains before posting articles]
I could see medical uses for a product like this. Especially for people with dementia.
Grandpa, senile, heart condition, and who's also a diabetic, gets lost while walking and has a heart attack. Now, you can find him and get him treatment. I can see it now, ADT and Brinks will start offering this service. It gives a new meaning to the add, "I've fallen and can't get up!"
any women could sue the ass of her husband if someone was stupid enough to try it, no need for new laws.
Hmmm... Where I'm at, a wife cannot sue her husband, at least not without a divorce. That's a silly idea - martial assets are shared. If a wife sues her husband she is essentially suing herself.
If you suspect your spouse is cheating, your relationship has bigger problems.
But yes, I too suspect this to be a hoax.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Although the idea is a combination of abhorrent and hilarious, this is quite probably just a joke. I read it this morning prior to slashdottedness.
It would be cool if it was possible to embed electronics that seamlessly into clothing, but it isn't possible- at least not according to what I've seen, and I work a lot in designing portable electronic instrumentation.
It would take some extreme perversion to have parents constantly monitoring the pubic temperature of their daughters. That's far more invasive than tracking one's location. I'm surprised that they didn't suggest putting in a humidity sensor: far more effective than temperature. I'm also surprised they didn't also include a remote shocker for dissuation.
I think that using something like that would be equivalent to giving written permission to your wife to do bad things to your reproductive organs.
This is a joke right I mean have you read what they say in there testimonials? "When my daughter hit puberty I nearly had a heart attack. She started looking like a woman and suddenly she was wearing revealing clothing and staying out late with her friends. Rather than become an over-protective parent , I decided to try forget-me-not panties(TM). They work wonderfully. My wife and I bought our Sarah several pairs so we can watch her around the clock, and if we see her temperature rising too high, we intervene by calling her cellphone or just picking her up wherever she is. My only comment is it would be great to have a video camera, maybe you can work that into V.2. Thanks forget-me-not panties(TM), now we have true peace of mind." ummm so yea this has to be a joke theres no way this is legit
Linux is like living in a teepee. No Windows, no Gates, Apache in house.
Uh, if this is real, I expect there to be an 'off' switch somewhere :)
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
This whole website seems like crap. Plus I hardly doubt a watch battery can generate power enough for GPS tracking.
No, that's assuming they don't want the child's position to be tracked any more. Which is, of course, a common desire for all kidnappers.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
how is this intrusive?
I would just rip the battery out if I didn't want anyone spying on me, and put it back in if I'm gone hiking.
But then again, I ain't part of the tinfoil crowd.
this is so stupid, it was on fark the other day. gps requires line-of-sight to the skies in order to operate. plus, how the hell would one receieve data from these panties? this is probably one of the most ridiculous slashdot stories ive ever seen.
I'm an EE. I work with GPS. Right now (well okay, during the week) I'm working with the cutting edge Xemics GPS engine. It's about 3cm x 4cm x 0.5 cm. That's the engine plus the em shield.
Now, let's add the following:
Batteries. The engine requires a steady 3.0 - 3.6 V supply capable of sustained current of 50mA. You're looking at a 1/2 AA form factor minimum.
Antenna. GPS antennas require a view of the sky. Beyond that, special antennas designed to fit against the skin are about as thick as a pencil and about 2 cm long.
CPU and circuitry to decode the GPS signal. (Polling RS232) The size is up to you. The minimum is about the size of a quarter, so I'll grant this part if they use the internal oscillator.
Let's assume the signal is to be broadcast. Then add:
Transmitter. This will probably include a crystal.
Antenna for the transmitter. If we're talking about a VHF transmitter at 150 MHz, the antenna is going to be about 24 INCHES long. (That's already 1/4 wave!)
Now fit this into panties unobstrustively.
No way. There is absolutely NO WAY a GPS tracker could be fit into a pair of panties. A jacket, maybe IF it was puffy.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Though marketed as a device to enable people to keep track of spouses,
It's time to become single again, I guess.
Retired from software... maybe. Sort of.
so they just need to take a spare set of clothes when they do the kidnapping?
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
this is absurd. To throw the trackers off, I just leave peices of clothing at friends houses, in a locker at the bus station and the YMCA, all over the place, hell put a few garments in friends cars so ther are many moving targets..
How would this work anyway, do you have to register your boxers with "big brother"? is it tied to a unique id embedded into the unit and documented on the tag?
I see this being a navelty, like the Macarana or bell bottoms.
It has been said several times.
After looking at the site... I am honestly scared.
First, this technology(GPS part), could easily be produced very soon. Just a battery with a GPS chip could easily be hidden in pairs of jeans, jackets, etc...
Now, the panties thing is far-fetched because if I buy my girlfriend 8 pairs of panties one day... she might be a lil suspicious, especially if I keep saying, wear these today.
I think it's a hoax for technical reasons. There's no way in hell a watch battery can power a GPS receiver AND some kind of transceiver (cellular? come on.) to send GPS data back to a tracking device.
+++ATH0
"Issues like this"? You mean jokes? There's no surreptitious way to add GPS tracking to clothing. At present, the smallest GPS tracking device is about the size of a deck of playing cards, requires a clear view of the sky, and has maybe a week of battery life, as it has to get the GPS information to the "watcher" wirelessly somehow (you do know that GPS is an entirely passive system, right?). You won't see public revolt until something like this is actually possible. Public revolt at this point would be mindless hysteria, resulting in stupid laws prohibitting non-existant devices.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
That this site is indeed a farce. http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/for get_me_not_panties_05260101/
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
Dude, that would've burst my nads. Are you sure you're male and straight?
You don't get depressed. You get down on your knees, thank God, and then join in.
+++ATH0
Currently in second place, 175,000 visitors, 115 blog links. Geeks are so gullible when it comes to sex and tech.
Read again: "If kids were usually wearing such clothing ..."
The probability of the child wearing it would be much higher than the child not wearing it (that's what the "usually" part implies), so the kidnapper would do so just in case.
One possible solution to the "naked child problem" was already given. Another would be to hide the child so that it cannot be seen from outside (e.g. use a mini transporter).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
This new technology should put any future pants/no pants issues to rest.
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
I am kind of curious about the durability.
Could it withstand being put into a washing machine with the hottest water possible. First you'll want to turn up your water heater.
Try microwaving your clothes. That should definately get the electronics. (I don't recommend this, as it's probably very dangerous.)
Or just wrap your body in tin foil. That might cause some interference.
Boy, what a stupid front page article. Not only is it an obvious fake article, but it doesn't make any sense. The device supposedly transmits to other devices, including laptops and cellphones, but how does the untrusting spouse get the data in real time? Are we to believe that the cell phone constantly transmits the data but the user isn't aware of it? Or maybe incoming calls go to the panties before they go to the phone owner? And it just makes no sense anyway. Maybe the biometrics in the panties, but why waste power and deal with a gps receiver and antenna, when the phone it has to be used with could just have the GPS components anyway? How could you believe this???
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
This technology is going to be abused so much by parents. Especially from more draconian cultures (*cough* Saudi Arabia *cough*). Even if laws give people the right not to be tracked it won't be enough to stop this. However its likely that many workarounds will be found, and once that happens the technology will become useless again. The evil part of me would have loved to set up a company producing this for the world-wide market (you only need to bother with the womens line), id have the added feature that the device would give an increasing electric shock the closer the wearer got to a police station. Wow exploitation is profitable!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Oh, maybe when it's not a hoax by contagiousmedia.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
damn, i knew it was too good to be true, thats what comes from not RTFA. but my point remains valid..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Maybe these folks aren't so crazy after all!
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
Depending on the country, area, demographic etc. It seems that up to 1 in 5 fathers are not actually the genetic parent of at least one of the children they think is theirs.
e.g.
http://tinyurl.com/2yl43
So it isn't just in Japan. Still with DNA testing there's no reason to be deceived in that matter these days.
Deleted
I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I proudly figlet:
|w henm y daugh t er hitp uber t yinea r lyhada|
|he ar ta ttack . shest arte dlooking li ke awoma n andsud|
|den lys hewas w earin grev ealingclo thi ngand s taying|
|outl atew i thher friends.ra ther t hanbec|
|omea nove r-pro t ectiv epar ent,idecid edto tryfo r get-me|
|-not pant ies.. t heywo rkwo nderfully. mywi feand i bought|
|ours arah sever a lpair ssowecanwa tchh eraro u |
Also, late breaking news: Bonsai kitten may not be real! Apple vibrator? fake!
Seriously. Where does all of the slashdot subscriber money go? I know this bad html4 layout costs dozens of gigs of bandwidth a month that could be saved with proper css, but even then, OSN needs to fire these 'editors' (Which are really just gatekeepers) and hire people who actually edit. JonKatz may have been annoying as hell, But at least he did his job.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
So the editors can't see a reason other than spying to track one's spouse? How about because you care about them and you want to make sure they're OK at all times. If you have to ask yourself if your spouse is cheating on you, then maybe you are not in a good relationship.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
how long before such technology becomes intrusive in our lives?
Story time, kids...gather 'round...
While doing an initial consultation on this woman's PC, I found the usual spyware....and then I found a spyware program which logs EVERYTHING. Keyboard strokes, mouse movement, net traffic, windows open, it takes random screen shots, etc. When I told the woman she had this thing on there, she said "I hoped you wouldn't find that." She uses it to track her husband without him knowing.
I wanted to offer this woman a $5,000 anti-EMF solution for her PC (aka wrapping it in tin foil) but I was in a good mood that day.
Uh... I'm thinking Disney World with two kids.
Mom and Dad can each go with one kid to wherever that kid wants to go, be able to find each other later, no need for cell phones.
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
entire slashdot community trolled, news at 11. it sure is easy to get you guys all upset
If you were tracking someone who's clothing you had access to, you could, get a device which stores datapoints on some small memory chip. When you recover the tracking device, that data could be downloaded and shown on a map. It wouldn't need to record everything, maybe just locations that they stayed at for more than 10 minutes. I'm sure this kind of technology is more possible than we think. If you put enough thought into it.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
If you could put this on your children and it monitored bio-metric info (thus showing if the clothing was taken off) it may help in identifying where your children are in the case of an abdution or any other mishap.
Sure - the downsides are obvious - but think of the benefits for a nerd-slob...
...the possibilities are endless.
* An application that'll scan one sock and automagically tell me where the other one is.
* Something that'll automatically tell me which of a pile of quasi-dirty tee shirts were least recently worn.
* Laundry that screams out to the automatic laundry-o-matic when it's been stuck down the back of the sofa for more than three months.
www.sjbaker.org
The proper way is to call her on her cell-phone and tell her to "move your ass right here, right now, bitch!"
No need for fancy GPS units.
Oh and the article linked to is obviously a hoax.
I'm wagering that this ain't fake. Why? Japan already has clothes with embedded GPS and/or RFID for student uniforms and backpacks as is. So this ain't that significant besides the tracking by panty idea.
Will this thing even make it to the US? Maybe, probably at your neighborhood porn store.
I do find the parent company's name funny though... Panchira Corp. Literally translated... Panties Showing Corp. HA!
Great! Then all you have to do is arrange for the person being tracked to wear the GPS patch antenna on top of their head and not go indoors or ride in any covered vehicle. You do know that GPS devices require an unobstructed view of a fairly good bit of sky, right? There are many things that make this device unworkable.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
...on Slashdot would something like this work; Where everyone comments on the article before actually clicking the link.
My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
While I'm sure the idea of knowingly being watched 24/7 isn't too appealing to the wearer of such an article of clothing, the fact that clothes need to be washed brings up another strike against such an invention.
The only options to overcome such an issue would be to completely waterproof the electronics in which case water-tight sealing would make that area of the clothing bulky and uncomfortable (especially considering the article posted was to a set of women's panties), or to make the electronic parts removable before washing, thereby eliminating the point of placing a GPS device on the wearer in the first place.
Overall, a bad idea...
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
Get a grip.
Too bad it's fake. Would've been interesting to see the realization of The Climacticon, a '60s novel about a hand-held device that detects sexual interest from across the room. (Talk about speed-dating...)
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
e.g.
http://tinyurl.com/2yl43
Up to nearly 1 in 3 in some areas. Sooo there appears to be fairly good statistical evolutionary reasons for males to be naturally distrustful.
DNA tests are quick, cheap and easy these days.
Deleted
Well, there are two outcomes of this device, 1 - The divorce rate will go up 2 - The murder rate will go up
(B) A completely transparent society where everything is public -- including our corporate master's finance books and the data of the wealthy elites?
I have a better idea. When are people such as yourself going to get the ability to see through transparent jokes? Then maybe your call for a transparent society will have some merit.
If you didn't pick up on this, maybe you're wrong about all those goofy conspiracy theories you constantly banter about?
I'm a big tall mofo.
I know that I would love to have something small to stick to my laptops and cameras as theft protection.
I can't think of better retribution then to steal back something that got stolen from you. Or just tell the cops.
(I've had a couple 1000$ cameras stolen from me a few years ago)
Hey, let's add a circuit to the GPS-tracking clothing to check proximity to a subcutaneously implanted RFID chip.
That way you'll know both where your spouse goes and when she takes her clothes off!
Is this a great technology or what?
Whoever posted this article probably is trying to pump up the visitors number for this website in this contest http://www.contagiousmedia.org/ .
"Meet us at X at 4:30."
And if you have to carry some sort of receiver (phone, GPS, PDA) to show where the other party is, why not a cell phone or walkie talkie? Convey far more information than just knowing 'where'.
I'll just go nude. Then nobody will be tracking me.
The military have used this technology for quite some time in vehicles, connecting a GPS to a military radio, which will transmit coordinates back to observers. Earlier this week my unit trained in a war-simulator, where the GPS-unit was sewn into the clothes, transmitting coordinates, ammunition-usage etc back to observers, who could then watch the operation in real-time in 2D-maps, aerial photos, or computer-generated 3D-landscapes.
:) I guess(/know) other countries military forces have the same kind of technology and simulators.
They showed us the observers-room, and replayed the whole game we played later. It was incredible awsome
Well, It looks like forgetmenot panties has figured out how to win the contagiousmedia contest, just post their page to Slashdot.
what sig?
Wouldn't that be SOP anyway? Think Folks, like the second set of data given is What X was wearing at the time. And since you are going to grab a kid OF A GIVEN SIZE (age) and Gender it would be simple to have some outfits stashed. Zone the kid out and drive away. there is no ??? in this sequence
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
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You are permitted to promote your entry however you see fit, with three exceptions: You may not use paid advertisements, automated processes that fake traffic, or scams that produce traffic without people actually seeing your content. Most other stuff is fair game.
emphasis mine.
It seems that by posting to slashdot, they have violated the rules.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
In the movie Aliens 2, the LT uses similiar technology to track his military team as they enter the atmospheric conversion facility. Now if our military had the funding, this technology would totally rock as a military application. Even in the civilian world, clothes with this technology would beat the heck out of one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons for the elderly. Unfortunately, as with any technology, someone is going to figure out how to screw someone else over with it, before they bother to figure out how to help someone with it. What a world we live in....
Gives new meaning to the Star Trek.....
Does this mean I can finally find that sock I lose when doing my laundry? I always get a fucking odd number after the dry cycle.
Since 2001, DoCoMo has had a GPS tracker that looks like a beeper you can give to your kids. The parent can track them on the Internet or get a map faxed to them.
It is made specifically for keeping track of kids.
I don't know if this article is fake right now or not, but you can expect to see this available sooner or later in countries that tolerate such invasions of privacy.
Expect it to be used by:
Parents of young children.
Family members of people with dementia and other illnesses that make them candidates for wandering.
People who sleepwalk outside their house.
Law enforcement, to track parolees, probationers, people out on bond, and others deemed "eligible" for tracking.
Pets, embedded in the collar.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Though marketed as a device to enable people to keep track of spouses, how long before such technology becomes intrusive in our lives?
Even though this is fake, it's interesting that the submitter did not think that this product is "intrusive in our lives."
I for one welcome our new girlfriend-stalking overlords.
my red frilly top.
I would've been able to track my wife and would have gotten divorced earlier.
Responding to an AC. How low can I go?
;) ) Good crystals can be 2mm x 5mm x 5mm.
You've linked to the old engine. It's bigger than the one that I'm talking about. Like I said, I'm using the cuting edge engine that you probably haven't seen yet. It's smaller and it still won't fit into someone's panties with any subtlety.
As for battery size, the units we make go out for years at a time. I'm very aware of exactly what the power requirements of a Xemics engine are. The sheet that you've pointed out is misleading. The low-power mode does not pick up GPS signals. It keeps the engine READY to accept GPS signals.
There are even lower power modes on those engines only keeps the RTC working. One board that I'm working on has a standby current of 17 uA. It can't get GPS data in that mode.
I'm not sure how you plan on getting the RS232 data without having a pic nearby. Yeah, it puts out a standard, easy-to-read signal. It doesn't just magically send that out to every computer in the area like on 24.
To have a transmitter with any accuracy, you'll want a crystal. You can make a transmitter any way you want, but if you want frequency stability over a range of temperatures, you'll want the crystal. Panties go on, panties come off. (You'll have to trust me on this one.
You're right, a wire thread would work great as the antenna for the transmitter. I'll have to try that and see how it works. Of course, if it gets wet and shorts the range would be greatly reduced.
Any way you build it, that engine is too big to put into panties stealthily. If there was a way to make it smaller, Xemics would do it. (And they are doing it, but it's still pretty big.)
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.