Miniature Tracking System: A Family Needs Help

Try Care Trak Mobile Locator. This was shown on Extreme Home Makeover for an autistic child, but they said it worked for others as well.

Thanks Guys appericiate all your comments.

There's quite a bit going on with this right now. Google "GPS shoes"

Here's one company that's working on stuff like that.

www.gtxcorp.com

Tom

Verizon offers GPS tracking on their phones. By him a phone?

The service you are seeking is called "Location Based Services" I believe.

Also, there are any number of companies that sell or lease small tracking devices for many different applications. Some of the devices are battery powered.

I guess it boils down to what you mean by "miniature," and how much money your willing to throw at the problem.

You have a LOT of off the shelf choices.

Perhaps an avalanche rescue locater type system, or Verizon wireless chaperon cell phones

This article in the Times reviews a number of tracking & location systems designed for children which might suit your application.

The ideas are good as long as someone keeps the thing charged and before he goes out the door, it is clipped on so that he cannot take it off, or switch it off....

To give good answers, your location in this world must also be given and known!!

I just read that the government is tracking paroled criminals with a GPS unit that's on an ankle bracelet.

In the UK they also have a problem with the offenders removing the bracelets & leaving them at home whilst they go out committing more crime. If they are asked where they were on the night they can say check the tracking record. One offender was found to have placed the bracelet on his dog in case anyone wondered why he wasn't moving.

Sprint offers the Family Locator. It adds $10/mo to your contract for the Vision service (which includes and/or allows a number of other features) and $10/mo for the Family Locator, which is not part of the contract and can be added/deleted any time you want. When you ask it to locate a family member, it displays a map centered on the coordinates of the phone.

Both phones need to be compatible with the system, but for most sold today this is not a problem.

(Work for RadiShack part-time. We sell more Sprint phones than Sprint and have MUCH better customer service.)

The Disney Cell phone has all the software for letting parents know where their kids have been. This should fill the bill and it's only $40.

Steve

The idea of a tracking device doesen't address the problem which is a person with dementia out on their own.

The tracking device still doesn't prevent anyone from going down to that river if the person monitoring them is preocupied. Heaven forbid they did fall in, it would only help in the recovery.

It's time to set aside your guilt (I know, I'm dealing with a similar situation though not dementia, more of a safety issue since I'm away from the house a good part of the day.) and give serious consideration to confined professionally supervised monitoring, weather in the home or in one of many fine (some are much better than others) assisted living facilities. Yes there is a cost...a lot less heartache when reporting a missing person.

Besides, they will always get their medications on time and pudding!

then please detail the problem better, do you want a warning alarm when he goes more than say 50 meters from a certain point or what?

A ball and chain might be appropriate, in a modern electronic form......!!

If this is a private house and you can lay a cable around the perimeter with some sort of say 100Hz signal emanating from it, a few 100 milliwatts or less, then some sort of receiver carried by the person you need to track, with a filter just for that frequency, could sound an alarm.

Or do it the other way round, the transmitter on the person and the cable as an antenna to the receiver.....

Something on those lines cannot be too difficult!

You can buy systems now to track someone more importantly inform you by phone if they leave their homes.

<disappearing>

Some would pay a fortune for this technology!

No need, its affordable!!

Hi All,

Thanks for your above suggestions. I will read through the above soon and follow all leads.

I am Sanjeet's client looking for some form of tracking device suitable for my father with dementia.

Background: My father is 66 years old and lives in Melbourne Australia. As with most early onset dementia he is deteriorating rapidly. He is now in a full-time state of delusion where he finds himself dealing with crisis after crisis for his former employer.

He is in the care of my Mother who is determined to continue as his carer for as long as she can.

Given his physical state he is mobile and makes the most of every opportunity to 'escape' / wander.

When he does wander he appears to most as being credible during the initial meeting phase. After some minutes almost all would dismiss him as either suffering intoxication, some form of retardation or if we are lucky hypoglycemic (and call for help). He tends to 'bounce' from person to person. He has been allowed to wander (while watched) to see if there is a pattern to his routes - he goes in different directions each time.

As a non-tech minded person I figure the technology exsists in the event that should someone steal my car I could look it up in real time on an application such as Google Maps and locate. I am wondering if there is such an application for individuals?? There is watch type model the Columba Bracelet that looks great but it is 6months away and only has a battery life of 8 hrs. He would need to have something we could attach full-time with a longer battery life (such as an anklet). He needs to have it attached 24/7 as he has the ability to wander 24/7. Looks to me that the main drain on the battery is that everything is turned on full-time. If there was a system that was in standby mode until activated by txt/sms??

The cost of his safety is the cost of his safety.

Regards

Damian

Sounds like you need to install fencing. Check with a few installers. There are some very good looking styles that won't make the property look like a prison and will allow your father some outside time without too much worry. If your local laws allow 6' fences, that would do. The "Sunshine" wing of my fathers assisted living facility has done that and it is pleasing to the eye and effective. Of course, supervision is still necessary.

I saw something years ago for pets and children. The pet had a little disc (RFID you would call it today) round the neck, no batteries to go flat.

A loop of cable was laid around the garden with some frequency (no idea what) of modulation, enough that when the disk came near, the electronics in the disk became activated via a loop antenna that also provided the power and sent a short range (2 meters?) back to the loop and the loop picked it up and sounded the alarm. You can surely buy the parts already made....

The way some shops look after their stock for instance.....an old secondhand system that is going to get replaced might be cheap....

The sensors can be attached to his or here clothing at the back....one on each item....just like in shops.....

If the person can only get out via certain doors or gates, then you only need to cover these exit points.....

There is also a good case to make the garden like a prison yard too.....!