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Smartphone app keeps children from getting lost24 August 2012 byNiall FirthMagazine issue 2878. Subscribe and save SCHOOL field trips might be fun for kids, but try being a teacher having to keep track of dozens of little charges, each with a penchant for wandering off. Now an app that alerts teachers when a child is straying from the flock could help prevent anyone getting lost. RubberBand uses a sensor attached to each child's backpack that broadcasts a radio signal to all the other children's sensors once every second. The signals are collected by a smartphone running software that measures the signal strength between every pair of children in the group to determine their locations relative to each other. If a child toddles off, or a splinter group forms, the system plays a sound to alert the teacher and displays photos of the kids involved. "This kind of work is invaluable even if we are able to prevent just one child from going missing," says Hyukjae Jang at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon. He will present the system at the UbiComp conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in September. In two tests, teachers found RubberBand let them get on with looking after the group without having to do constant head counts. "I didn't feel as stressed out," said one kindergarten teacher who tried the system.
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Tracks Back PacksSun Aug 26 11:56:32 BST 2012 by Ian WSo as with many of these 'tracking' systems it is not tracking the child but their backpack. Perhaps it should also have an alert if a child is stationary for say 5 minutes (the back pack has been discarded). Or the sensor could be put on a wrist band or neck chain this does not totally resolve the issue as older children may spoof the system, but it is closer to tracking the child.
login and replyreport this commentTracks Back PacksMon Aug 27 04:49:00 BST 2012 by ArshadI was just going to say this. The RubberBand should be in the format of an anklet or a bracelet.
The system can be spoofed by leaving it off or attaching it to a donkey. Or the teacher unsuspectingly keeps the backpack of a stereo type 'back-bench' kid who pretends to go for a loo.
Also the teacher needs to make sure that she doesn't loose herself, loose the device or run out of battery juice.
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