Last week at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I came across a cool gadget. It’s from Lok8U (Locate You), a British manufacturer of a watch, called Num8 (new mate), a GPS Child Locator device which uses satellites to allow you to track your children.
You have seen these types of devices for years in sci-fi movies and televisions shows like Stargate, The New Knight Rider.
Num8 is the world’s first GPS locator device specifically designed to be worn by children. All you need is a mobile phone or a computer to find their precise location.
It attaches securely to a child’s wrist and it contains an embedded GPS and cellular transceiver which broadcasts your child’s location so long as it is on the child’s wrist. If taken off, it immediately texts an emergency message to the programmed mobile phone showing the location via Google Maps. The Google Maps image shows their exact location, the street name and the zip code.
To operate the waterproof device, the parent texts the message “wru” (where are you?”) to the child’s wrist device. The location is then sent back as a text message to the parent’s mobile phone.
The device also has the ability to operate a type of invisible fence, allowing a message to be sent as soon as the child leaves a predefined area.
But really the only thing that keeps your child safe is you keeping a real eye on them; after all there is no substitute for a parent’s non-tech vigilance. In the end technology always crashes when you need it most.
When we get one try out, we will see if the hype works as good as advertised.
The device will be available this spring in both the United States and Great Britain for the equivalent of $200, plus a $10 per month required GPS subscription.
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