Where Are We? - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 155

and 2010, and the personal tracking industry, now growing 40 percent or more
annually, will reach $1 billion by 2017, according to abi Research. 51 Such growth
is attracting large companies that already compete in commercial tracking as
well as new entrants filling market niches. Various tracking systems now cater
to those responsible for infants, children, and people with special needs such
as autism or dementia. The Alzheimer's Association collaborated with Omni-
link Systems of Alpharetta, Georgia, to create Comfort Zone, a web-based ser-
vice that families or caregivers can use to monitor Alzheimer's patients. 52
Omnilink, which got its start tracking criminal offenders and now offers numer-
ous commercial solutions, formed a similar partnership with the AmberWatch
Foundation, employing the same technology to monitor children. 53 gtx, of
Los Angeles, California, collaborated with Teaneck, New Jersey, footwear
maker Aetrex Worldwide to embed a tracker in the heel of the Navistar gps
shoe, available for men or women. Each pair costs about $300 plus monthly
connection fees, and the company offers a tracking portal on its website. 54
Alzheimer's patients may forget or remove a separate device, but putting on
shoes is an aspect of memory most patients retain, say experts. 55 The National
Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, selected the gps
shoe to illustrate the spread of gps into daily life, including clothing, in an
exhibit of “the one hundred most important inventions in history, as rated by
the Swedish people.” 56 gps ranked twenty-irst at this writing, while comput-
ers held first place.
A Swedish company, Purple Scout, makes a bright-yellow safety vest called
ChildChecker with built-in gps tracking that daycare centers there have adopted
for outdoor activities and field trips. 57 It reports each child's location to the
teacher's smartphone. Administrators and daycare workers praise the device,
although some critics wonder about the long-term effects of constant surveil-
lance on children's sense of privacy. 58 The wristwatch phone envisioned in the
Dick Tracy comic strip is now available (minus two-way tv) via New York City-
based Revolutionary Tracker, which offers its gps Watch Locator, a multipur-
pose watch, tracker, and communications device featuring two-way voice and
text as well as a listen-in mode. Brightly colored wrist straps increase the appeal
for children, or parents can hide the electronic component alone in an infant's
clothing or blankets. 59 Amber Alert gps, located in South Jordan, Utah, offers
a personal locator for children with an automatic predator alert that informs
parents if their child is within five hundred feet of the registered address of
any sex offender listed in the U.S. Justice Department's national database. 60