Friday, Sep 5, 2008
As demand for these devices grows and developments in technology push prices within reach of the middle-class consumer, it does seem ever more likely that the nanny of the new millennium will be more machine than Mary Poppins. In March Microsoft unveiled a prototype for a plush, robotic "Teddy" whose electronic eyes follow a kid's movements using face-recognition software, thus allowing parents to monitor their child via a wireless Internet connection. In what seems like a conscious effort to soften what could be a creepy cyborg image, Leigh Rosenwald, a Microsoft spokeswoman, calls the Teddy an attempt at "a true human-computer interaction" that developers hope will enhance "the way people think, feel and communicate."
In a clever bit of cross-marketing, Microsoft has also initiated designs for a "Family Awareness Clock," inspired by an enchanted timepiece in the Harry Potter series, which uses its hands (and in this case, GPS technology rather than magic), not only to tell time but also to track individual family members' whereabouts throughout the day. "Tracking applications have been around for many years," Rosenwald says. "But we were inspired by J.K. Rowling's take on the form. At this stage we are only exploring different design possibilities, but we hope to build a working prototype soon." And it's certainly not hard to believe that the country's Harry Potter-crazed kids would gladly give up a bit of their privacy to have their very own version of the Weasleys' magic clock in their kitchen.
Wherify Wireless, of Redwood Shores, Calif., pioneered the field of kid-tracking with the release of its Personal Locator, in 2002. A sporty wristwatch-style device that came in kid-friendly colors like "galactic blue" and "cosmic purple," the Personal Locator used GPS technology to pinpoint the wearer's location within a few feet and allowed parents to monitor their child by logging on to a secure Internet site. Nifty extras included a 911 panic button that the wearer could press in case of an emergency, as well as a water- and cut-resistant band that could be locked onto the child's wrist using a remote control (ostensibly to prevent kid snatchers from ditching the device before the child could be found).
For Wherify founder and CEO Timothy Neher, inspiration arrived in 1998, after he momentarily lost track of his niece and nephew during a trip to the zoo. While his charges were quickly recovered, the panic he'd felt haunted him. "It's a feeling every parent feels at one time or another, when you turn around and your child is just gone," Neher explains. "I wondered, 'What if they hadn't turned up right away?' I had no picture of them or anything. And I thought, 'There has to be some sort of technological solution to this problem.'"
The task required years of research and development, but when Neher unveiled the Personal Locator, the response was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. Parenting magazine declared it "the latest must-have," and Oprah called it "unbelievable ... cutting-edge technology that [can] keep your children safe." Though there were kinks that needed working out -- the GPS signal could be lost when a child was indoors, and the wristwatch design was needlessly clunky -- the model sold tens of thousands of units through word of mouth and the Internet.
This year, Wherify plans to launch the sleeker, lighter "Wherifone" -- a palm-size cellphone hybrid that, in addition to having the standard tracking features, allows kids to download games and make limited two-way calls. Aimed at middle-class consumers, the Wherifone will be available at Wal-mart for about $139, plus $14.95 to $29.95 a month, depending on the selected service plan. In addition to big-box retail outlets, Wherify also plans to target "affinity groups" such as MedicAlert and the Autism Society.
By pitching the product to kids as a kind of cellphone with training wheels, Wherify also hopes to ease some of the sting of being under surveillance. "I want to take the Big Brother idea out of the picture," Neher says. "We'd rather think of our products as facilitating family communication. If parents are smart, they'll tell kids how to use it in case of danger, and not force it, because the last thing we want to do is scare teens away from technology that could help them."
Founded by Rob Berry, a partner in the corporation that put 1-800-HowsMyDriving decals on tractor-trailer trucks across the country, Teen Arrive Alive combines a uLocate Java program with GPS-enabled Nextel cellular phone service -- allowing parents to access a secure Internet site with the ability to not only pinpoint their teen's whereabouts to a ten-foot radius but also monitor the direction and speed of any vehicle in which they are traveling. If that's not enough to ensure a peaceful nights sleep, TAA also lets parents set specific boundaries for their children, and it delivers automated text messages or e-mails to the parent should those borders be breached.
It's little surprise that behind many of the corporations that produce kid trackers is a crusading parent. Jack Church, the vice president of Teen Arrive Alive, lost his 19-year-old son, Robert, to a car accident that sent the vehicle off a 15-foot drop and into a small pool of water that couldn't be seen from the road. It took two days of frantic searching to recover Robert's body, though the accident occurred less than a mile from his Texas home.
If Robert Church's car had been equipped with TAA, his tragic story might have had a different ending. Or maybe not. Jack Church refuses to second-guess. "The truth is, it was the middle of the day and there was no reason for me to be online and checking for Robert. But what I do know is if we'd had TAA, it would have saved my wife and me two days of agony, searching and knowing something was wrong and not being able to do anything."
When TAA launched its service in May of last year, it was marketed to parents of drivers as way of teaching traffic safety and responsibility to teens. But to the company's surprise, when news of the device hit the media, the biggest response came from parents of younger children who wondered if the product would work as a stand-alone tracking device as well. "We have parents who sign up saying that they just worry every time their kids leave the house, let alone get behind the wheel," Church says. By now TAA has established a presence in every state in the country, and more than half of the children enrolled in its program are under age 15.
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