Different GPS Devices For Kids - Part Two
With over 80,000 abductions or attempted abductions of children each year, it is important for parents to keep track of where their children are at all times. GPS devices for kids can help them do just that.
In our previous post we examined some of the different GPS devices for kids. We will go further here and flesh out some of the more interesting offerings in the marketplace for concerned parents.
What GPS Devices Are Available?
One model which can be used for keeping track of your children (or pet or even a parent with Alzheimers) is the Brickhouse Locator. The locator allows you to place tiny homing tags on the person or device that you wish to keep track of. This device utilizes RFID technology in order to guide you to the location of whatever is tagged. With an unobstructed signal, the manufacturer claims that the device is effective up to 600 feet away.
Another device you can use (albeit for only small children) is the Mommy I’m Here! locator. These devices are in the shape of cute teddy bears that can be attached to your child’s shoes. The device is a simple audio alert unit the emits a 56DB signal from as far away as 150ft!! This is a perfect choice for parents whose small children are always wandering off in crowds.
Brickhouse also has another product which allows itself to be placed within a child’s jacket or backpack. The “GPS Jacket” is equipped with a mini GPS device that utilizes the GPS Real Time Monitoring system to track your child’s whereabouts.
Mini GPS devices are also being placed into shoes. Quantum Satellite Technology and GTX have separate lines of shoes which employ the GPS Real Time Monitoring System. Other retailers are also offering shoes. Initially these shoes are rather pricey (some as much as $350), but as technology improves and the shoes become more wide-spread, look for this cost to go down.
The GemTrac GPS Personal Locator System is another example of a GPS Real Time Monitoring system. The device allows you to monitor where your child is at all times by simply logging onto website and checking its location. The GemTrac unit also allows your child to make outbound calls to only 2 pre-set phone numbers (thus preventing your child from running up a huge wireless phone bill!). Two fantastic features on the Gemtrac is the Geofence option which allows parents to setup boundaries that their child must stay inside. If the child goes outside this invisible “fence”, an alert will be immediately sent to the parents. The second really neat feature is the Emergency Audio Remote Monitoring. When activated, this feature allows parents to listen to voices and sounds that are within a short distance from the locator.
Garmin and Magellan have devices for your older kids too. Want to know where your son and daughter has been with the family car (and possibly even how fast they were travelling) ? You can know in a second with some of their automobile GPS devices. In under an hour, any automobile can be equipped with a GPS device which can allow parents to log in to a website and monitor. Another reason for getting one is that some car insurance companies have signaled that they might give substantial discounts in the future to policyholders whose vehicles are equipped with GPS devices.
These are by no means all of the devices out in the market. This is a representative sampling of some of the devices and types of devices available to the public. As technology for Kids GPS Devices improves, we will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision.
Remember, your children are your most prized possession. Keep track of them and keep them safe!
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Different GPS Devices For Kids - Part One
With so many options to choose from, you could literally spend hundreds of hours trying to find the perfect device for you and your kids. As we mentioned in a previous post about Kids GPS, the devices can range anywhere from something as obvious as a GPS-equipped phone to something as inconspicuous as a wrist-watch or a jacket that has a GPS locater sewn into it.
Types Of Child Locator Devices
There are four basic types of child locator devices.
The first type is a Simple Audio Alert Unit. The devices are usually disguised as an animal or trinket that can be attached to shoes, backpacks or any article of clothing. When a parent presses a button, the device emits a high volume beep which alerts the parent to their child’s location.
The second type are RFID-based devices. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and these devices can guide parents, who have a special hand-held unit, to the location of their child. The accuracy of these types of devices is usually within 500 feet of the locator.
The third type are GPS Logging devices. These devices are usually used as an after-the-fact type of device. What parents can do is download the data from the device to their PC (or Mac) and can verify that their child is not going to places that they are forbidden.
Finally - the GPS Real Time Monitoring System is the most promising of all types in that it provides you up-to-the-minute results via the internet on where your child is located and what they might be up to.
What Kids GPS Devices Are Available?
One type of GPS-equipped phone is a product called Chitter Chatter. This product resembles a wrist watch and is purported to be the world’s smallest GSM / Enhanced Locator Based Service (LBS) Locator Phone. The locator service is accurate to within 300 feet. This product was just recently announced so expect it to hit the market sometime in the near future.
Another product that can provide parents peace-of-mind is the Wherify GPS Locator Watch. This product is already out on the market. The device is water resistant, cut resistant, prevents unwanted removal (in case of abduction), and contacts 911 if the two outer buttons are held for 3 seconds. Want to know where your child is right now? Simply log onto the website and check your child’s whereabouts in real time. One of the neater features of the device is that you can unlock the device remotely if your child needs to remove it and you are not present (i.e. - if your child is at swim practice at the pool).
Wireless carriers have expanded their offerings into the realm of child tracking. Verizon offers the Chaperone service (which launched on June 16, 2008). Sprint has also has its own service
(which was launched in 2006) called Family Locator. The best thing about the Sprint service is that it can reported be used with any web-capable phone (even if a competitor sold the phone).
These are some of the products that are either on the market or are expected to hit the market soon. In our next installment we will continue with some of the different types of GPS devices that can be used to keep track of your young children (and even your teens).
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What is GPS?
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. This system was designed by the United States’ Department of Defense which was seeking a better way to navigate its forces around the globe. Its full name is NAVSTAR GPS. This is an acronym that stands for Navigation Signal Timing and Range Global Positioning Systems. The system originally went “live” in 1985, with the final satellite placed in orbit in 1994.
There are twenty four satellites in geo-synchronous orbit around the Earth. These satellites send continuous signals 24 hours a day down to the GPS receivers on the Earth’s surface, regardless of weather conditions.
How Does GPS Work?
The system works by analyzing the signals from the receiver (the GPS equipped device you might have) to different satellites. The system measures the time difference of the signals from each of the satellites and how long they take to reach the receiver. From there, the system can compute the location ( longitude and latitude) of the device.
How Accurate Is GPS?
The system has improved its accuracy over the past 23 years. Right now, the system can pinpoint a receiver within twenty feet, anywhere on the globe. As technology improves, this guaranteed location can be narrowed down to mere inches. Because of its accuracy, it is used for navigating planes, vehicles and ships around the world. Additional uses are in land surveying (very important for oil companies to help find new deposits), mapmaking as well as many different types of scientific research.
Original receivers were fairly large. Now, they are small enough to be placed in cell phones. This is good thing for harried parents as it allows them to use kids gps devices to assist them in keeping track of their children.
Filed Under Chaperone, Chitter Chatter, GPS, GPS In Clothing, GPS Locators, GPS Logging, GPS Real Time Monitoring, GPS Systems, GPS Tracking, Garmin, Kids GPS, Magellan, Portable GPS, Wherify, familylocator, homing tags, mini GPS | Leave a Comment
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