January 11, 2007
GPS Footwear
The latest Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has been developed to track individuals anywhere on the planet. A recent article in the Miami Herald points out that you can forget to carry your phone, and you can forget to wear a watch but you can't leave the house and forget to put on your shoes. A Miami company has developed shoes embedded with GPS technology that can locate the wearer anywhere in the world. The design allows wearers to press a button hidden near the shoe's lace to send a distress signal.
The use of GPS technology has been in place for such uses as tracking dementia patients with a geopositioning phone-braclet. The rate of Alzheimer's patients that "wander" or "stray" is almost 60%, with a high death rate when they are not found quickly. GPS has been a solution to the problems that families, caregivers and police authorities must deal with.
The technology can be adapted to constantly detect the whereabouts of critical service personnel such as EMS, firefighters, or even to monitor children. The shoes are called Quantum Satellite Technology and will be available in stores in March.
Quantum Satellite Technology Shoes