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AmberWatch Mobile is a new
technology under development which is intended to turn everyday
cell phones into an effective safety tool. The AmberWatch
software will provide Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking
capabilities to wireless phones and handheld devices to help
keep wireless consumers and their families safe from harm.
Once launched, AmberWatch Mobile's services will include
text-message, voice, web and email alerting systems that
provide:
Parents will be able to use the application to monitor their
children's movements and children can use it to send an alert to
their parents notifying them of their exact location. The
application can also be set up to send an alert to a parent's
cellphone when the child gets home from school, or strays from a
designated area, creating a kind of digital fence. Eventually,
the application could also be linked to a panic button on the
child's cellphone which, when pressed, emits a high-decibel
sound to ward off potential abductors. The software will be
downloadable from a Web site onto handheld devices with a
monthly cost of $4.99/month, half of which will be donated to
the AmberWatch Foundation.
AmberWatch is one product in a wave of new GPS products
appearing on the market, according to the Wall Street Journal. A
few companies have already developed products that keep tabs on
children, such as
Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Mobile and
Sprint Nextel Corp., which both offer similar Family Locator
services that let parents look up their child's location on a
Web site or cellphone. But AmberWatch Mobile will be the first
GPS application that also lets the child initiate the sending of
exact GPS coordinates to parents.
The application for AmberWatch Mobile is developed by WaveMarket.
Approximately half of the proceeds from product sales go to the
AmberWatch Foundation in support of its programs educating
children and their parents on how to stay safe from sexual
predators.
The software enabling the service can be downloaded to a child's
GPS-enabled cellphone. It then allows parents to log on to a
dedicated Web site,
amberwatchmobile.com, and quickly pinpoint their child's
cellphone location. The child can also zap his or her location
from the GPS-compatible handset via text message or email to the
parent's phone by hitting a few keys on their cellphone.
Sources:
“GPS Device for Keeping Tabs on Children,” Wall Street
Journal, June 21, 2007.“AmberWatch
Mobile Introduced at BREW 2007 Conference,” WaveMarket Press
Release, June 21, 2007.
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