August 15, 2002. Copyright 2002. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

High-tech locator tracks children in minutes

LONDON, August 15, Graphic News: Losing a child is every parentÕs worst nightmare. Now a personal locator Ð developed in the U.S. and equipped with miniature Global Positioning System (GPS) technology Ð uses satellite tracking and wireless communications to enable parents to find their child anywhere in the country within one minute.

The Personal Locator -- developed by Wherify Wireless of Redwood Shores, California -- has wed GPS technology to SprintÕs nationwide PCS wireless network to enable parents to locate their children, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Once strictly a military tool, the GPS navigation system -- based on a network of 24 satellites -- is now available to civilians around the clock. Each GPS device receives radio signals from four satellites to tell users where on earth they are. Coupled with software and mapping programs, the devices pinpoint locations by altitude, longitude, and latitude to within a metre of accuracy.

PCS (Personal Communications Services) is a wireless phone service very similar to the cellular phone service, but with an emphasis on greater user mobility, and with additional services like paging, caller ID and e-mail bundled into the service.

The Galactic Blue and Cosmic Purple Personal Locators -- the latest must-have fashion accessories for kids -- enable a parent to log into a web page using a secret code and password, hit a ÒlocateÓ button and, within a minute, see an aerial photograph of the braceletÕs location. The readout also gives the approximate address of the child.

In the event of an emergency, either the child or parent can request an emergency 911 response and local police will be dispatched.

According to Timothy Neher, founder and president of Wherify Wireless, it took four years of hard work, along with extensive product development and testing, to bring the GPS Personal Locator to market.

Neher came to understand a parentÕs ultimate nightmare while treating his brotherÕs two young children to an outing at the Honolulu zoo.

ÒI looked up at the lunch menu where we were going to order food,Ó Neher said. ÒBy the time I looked back down again, they were gone.Ó

ÒI didnÕt even know what they had on -- I didnÕt dress them. I didnÕt have any pictures. I was about to call the police.Ó

After Neher corralled his wandering charges he started thinking about technologies that could help parents answer the burning question: ÒWhere is my child right now?Ó

In July, after four years of work, Wherify Wireless began delivering the first of the brightly coloured, rugged digital watches to customers. About 1,000 of the $400 units have been shipped, Wherify says. Since Wherify Wireless.com began taking online reservations, there have been orders for about 100,000 units, Neher said.

Neher may be bringing his product to market at a time when parents are particularly anxious. Every 42 seconds a child is reported missing in America, and more than 100,000 under-18s go missing each year in the UK. Although the overwhelming majority of missing children are reported as suspected runaways, around one percent are victims of abduction -- mostly committed by family members. 

NeherÕs innovation makes use of the most accurate 3D maps of the world yet produced, with data collected during a joint U.S.-German-Italian space shuttle mission in February 2000. Although the U.S.-funded maps have been made freely available to American companies for commercial applications, other countries may have to wait before super-accurate maps are made public.
/ENDS

Sources: Wherify Wireless, U.S. Department of Justice, UK National Missing Persons Helpline