The Hindu : Front Page : A satellite safety net over your kids

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Sunday, Aug 10, 2008
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A satellite safety net over your kids

Anand Parthasarathy

Mobile phone-GPS technology combo comes in handy

— (Graphic: Anand Parthasarathy)

SATELLITE watch: mTrac assures the safety of children — or the aged — by combining GPS satellite technology with a mobile phone SIM card.

Bangalore: The 24-satellite network, Global Positioning System or GPS, is being increasingly used to create compelling applications for layusers.

The most recent product announcement in India features a canny combination of GPS with other widely-used consumer technologies. These are harnessed to create a device that will allow parents to throw, in effect, a satellite safety net over their children or aged family members.

The Mumbai-based Auto Track Systems ( www.autotrack.co.in) has teamed up with the U.S. and U.K.-based 2-Track Global ( www.2-trackglobal.com) to launch a personal tracking system, called mTrack, in India. The palm-sized device can be slipped into a child’s schoolbag. The built-in satellite antenna keeps track of the child’s position and this can be monitored by the parents all times, by logging on at a Web page, created for them by Auto Track. This can be done on a PC or Internet-enabled mobile phone.

They can also draw a ‘Lakshman rekha’ encompassing home and school — so that an alarm sounds, when the child crosses the perimeter willingly or unwillingly. A ‘panic’ button allows the child to raise an alarm anytime and this will trigger a call to the parents’ mobile phone.

The device will also be useful to senior citizens who can step out with the confidence that they can raise an alarm, if overcome by any medical problem, and can be traced at all times by carers. The mTrack device costs Rs. 21,000 and there is an annual fee of Rs. 3,000 for maintaining the personal web page. This includes two-way voice calls between the user and his or her family.

‘Geo fence’

The same company has also launched a version for vehicles, called iTrack. Fitted in a car, it allows the owner to keep an ‘electronic eye’ on it, from far away or even from another town. Owners can create a ‘geo fence’ — say a 200-metre circle — and if the car goes outside the ‘fence’, it will trigger an alarm. A thief won’t get very far. The owner can disable the steering or fuel supply remotely, with an SMS message to the car-mounted device.

Auto Track also plans to bring out compact versions to protect and track two-wheelers and laptop computers, says managing director Kamal Jadhwani.

The “trishul” technologies — GPS, cellular telephony and Internet — behind these tracking tools have combined to become a powerful weapon in the hands of ordinary users like you and me to help us protect our property and our loved ones.

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