GPS for kids? Sign me up!
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 9, 2013
They’ve got LoJack for the car, LoJack for pets, and now – I kid you not – LoJack for kids.
It was with much delight that I opened the email subjected, “Keep Children Safe This Halloween with the World’s Smallest GPS Tracker, Locca.”
If you don’t know what LoJack is, it’s a system that will help you locate one’s stolen vehicles and items. The company even works to help public safety agencies track and rescue individuals with cognitive conditions that wander and go missing, similar to the local Project Lifesaver.
Vets are able to microchip pets these days, but I’ll be honest, I never heard of a process to do the same to one’s child.
Now, I’m not downing it by any means. In fact, I would’ve said sign me up if you’d asked me at the hospital the day I was to be sent home with my brand new baby if you could insert a chip that would assure me I could find her if she ever got lost.
If you would have asked me after shutting down Wal-Mart in a “Code Adam” after my child thought it would be a good idea to play inside one of the round racks, I would have said, “Sign me up.”
And after watching John Walsh talk about his missing son, Adam, who was later found murdered, I would have said, “Sign me up.”
I’m not sure how or if “Locca,” the product of an overseas company, will take off, but I think it’s a brilliant idea. It doesn’t work on a chip system. Instead, children are equipped with an emergency button, speed dialing, and microphone and speakers for calling so that children can get in touch with their parents with the touch of a button, while parents can have continuous real-time updates regarding their child’s whereabouts.
That is so cool.
I can’t believe that technology has come so far. I’ll tell my age here, but I can remember when cell phones came in bags, and when being able to see someone on a screen while talking to them on the phone was something out of a sci-fi movie.
I guess it’s truly a sign of how the times are changing.
I wonder what the future will hold for us.
According to Forbes, we’re on the brink of a new digital paradigm, where the capabilities of our technology are beginning to outstrip our own. It said that computers are deciding which products to stock on shelves, performing legal discovery and even winning game shows. They will soon be driving our cars and making medical diagnoses. Now won’t that be something to see?