Week 2 Signal: Tracking Children’s Location
One of the biggest nightmares of parents is losing their child. It can be due to either losing track of the child in a public crowd or stranger abduction. In 2014, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center had 466,949 entries for missing children under the age of 18. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children indicates that the first three hours are the most critical when trying to locate a missing child.
As the Global positioning systems (GPS) technology advances, a lot of technology on how to track children has been developed in US. For example, Pocket Finder GPS is a device which can be clipped onto a child to locate him or her throughout the day using the service’s website and apps. Similar tracking technologies include WorldTracker Enduro and Amber Alert GPS 2G.
Phone applications also play an important role on child locating issues. For instance, MamaBear is a free mobile application which can be used to monitor family members’ location when each member downloads the app. As iCloud is invented, people can also use find my iphone to locate related members.
As the usage of smartphones and technology increased dramatically in developing countries, and missing children is a common social challenge which a lot of families face, the related technology could be a trend for a smart city to make a city safer for families.
http://whnt.com/2014/07/15/tracking-tools-to-avoid-losing-your-child-in-a-crowd/
