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GPS Sneakers! What do you think of these?

 
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gozgals



Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 2892
Location: A Place Called Vertigo

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:51 am    Post subject: GPS Sneakers! What do you think of these? Reply with quote

GPS Sneakers Can Track Missing Children

Parents will have another option to track their missing children once a new product developed by an Atlanta man goes on the market this summer. By putting a small global positioning system chip in the souls of sneakers, Isaac Daniel's company says it will be able to locate the wearer of its footwear anywhere in the world.

Daniel got the idea after he received a call in 2002 telling him that his eight-year-old son was missing from school. The report turned out to be a false alarm, but it gave him the idea for his Quantum Satellite Technology footware and he began to work on the project immediately.

Daniel's sneakers look like most others on the market (see photo), except they have on-off buttons hidden near the shoelaces and a GPS chip in the soul of the shoe. The wearer can activate the system by pressing the button, or in case of an emergency, the monitoring service can activate the system remotely and locate the person.

Monitoring Service

"We call it a second eye watching over you," Daniel told reporters.

The adult version of the shoes, ideal for Alzheimer's patients for example, cost about $350 and the monitoring service is an additional $19.95 per month. The adult version of the shoes will go on sale next month, with the children's line set to on the market this summer.

Daniel is taking preproduction orders for 1,000 of the adults shoes on his Web site. He thinks his tracking shoe idea will catch on for parents, because shoes are less likely to be lost by children, compared with cell phones, watches and bracelets.

See Also:
Engineer: GPS Shoes Make People Findable
IsaacDaniel.com

http://glclk.about.com/?zi=15/3Jx0

Any comments anyone? Good, bad idea?

Gozgals
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jane



Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 3225

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems there should be a less expensive way to do it (if it could be attached to any shoe rather than imbedded).

No price would be too high when a child (or incapacitated person) goes missing, but to shell out that kind of money on a regular basis when there is only a possibility of a disappearance - it is out of reach for many people (especially when you consider how quickly children's feet can grow).

And then there is the issue of whether people should be constantly traceable - the privacy issue.

I do think rd is right, though, when he says that known predators should be monitored as closely and constantly as possible.
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gozgals



Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 2892
Location: A Place Called Vertigo

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was thinking along the same lines as you stated Jane, especially in regard to cost even though you can't put a price on the lives of our children or elderly. Many children will not want to wear these sneakers though, at least I feel that way. They are into styles and will not want to feel that all their moves are being monitored either.

But--- I do think it is the predators that should be monitored, not the other way around!

The idea does have some merits though and it is worth exploring further.

Have a good day.

Goz
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have been doing some research lately, I will post some comments on it here a little later. The biggest problem with GPS only is that it doesn't work indoors or even in the shadow of tall buildings, such as in urban alleys.

Also, this shoe GPS doesn't work unless turned on by the child or turned on remotely by a parent calling an emergency number. The batteries would wear out very quickly.

I like the idea of a cell phone with 911 GPS location emergency dial button much better. Kids would need to keep it off at school and stored away in their locker or bag, as some schools are prohibiting cell phones I understand.

I have called before for a nationwide infrastructure push for the equipment to handle 911 GPS calls as part of our national security. That is the kind of smart moves we need to make, rather than politically connected strings attached dumb money thrown out to buy votes.

It needs to be federally financed, which is pretty massive, but manpower provided by locals, only the hardware infrastructure financed by federal government.

More on enhanced GPS tracking of felons tonight.

rd
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did some research on GPS tracking, and GPS requires a clear line of site from ground to satellites to work. It doesn't work indoors. GPS by itself is not suitable for tracking felons.

In addition, tracking devices do things that aren't needed just for recording locations every few minutes to store in a database. They do things that constantly use power, like compute speed and direction, or transmit location. This consumes batteries in just a matter of hours.

However, cell phone tower signals, called GSM signals, are everywhere a cell phone works. There are also many local wireless signals. Signals such as from cell phone towers don't have a GPS location, but they do have an IP like address identifier.

Law enforcement has or can have all the nationwide locations of these signals to use in later determining the location of a tracked person, if the signal identifers in the area are just recorded every few minutes.

Cell phone signals work everywhere around the clock, so a recording device will pick up some identifier no matter where the person is, even in a basement where the signal is too weak to make a call. GPS locations would be recorded as well when available.

The readings would be offloaded periodically to law enforcement (probation check-ins, etc.), recorded to a database, and locations computed from cell tower and wi-fi identifiers to supplement any successful GPS readings (a reading from a certain cellular tower with a GPS reading would essentially identify the proximity of the tower to give indoors location identification from the GSM signal when GPS is not available).

Law enforcement can check the data later for anyone in proximity to a crime scene when investigating a crime, and maybe just as importantly, eliminate a lot of potential suspects that would otherwise require massive manpower to investigate.

The hardware required would be like a cell phone with GPS and powered by a rechargeable battery. Of course for felons, as a condition of probation, the device would not be able to be removed without making an emergency call and being disabled. The device would check in with a periodic call and last GPS location to show it's still working.

This is not an expensive process, and is in fact how probation is supposed to work. Law enforcement is supposed to know where these guys are, it is just far too expensive to keep tabs on these predators. If the felon makes a habit of disabling the tracking device, then probation is violated and back into prison he goes.

A cheap prison, by the way, but that's another post.

rd

click to read the online true crime mystery novel Murder on a Horse Trail: The Disappearance of Chandra Levy

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