GPS Tech Review

Does one’s right to privacy carry a greater weight than one’s right to life?

A recent Canadian news article raises the issue of demented patients rights to privacy over thier right to life owing to the incursion of GPS Tracking technology affording care givers knowleged of thier location should they wander.

GPS for Alzheimer’s patients?

Wed Dec. 23 2009 5:17:49 PM  ctvmontreal.ca

Montreal police are conducting a feasibility study into the costs and benefits of providing GPS tracking bracelets to Alzheimer’s patients to prevent them from becoming lost.

The study comes less than two weeks after Maria del Carmen Serrano, 73, was found dead near the Hippodrome de Montreal former race track after she wandered off from her Park Extension home days earlier. Her son, Jesus Serrano, is convinced his mother would still be alive today if she’d had a GPS tracking bracelet. He tried to order one for her a year ago, after she disappeared the first of three times.

“They told me, ‘No, in Canada you cannot use that system.’ But if it is in Canada, I would love to have had that because with that, I could find my mom in five minutes,” he said.

Montreal police expect the results of the study in the new year. If the study recommends bracelets, extensive discussions will follow on which at-risk individuals should be provided the devices, as well as whether the tracking tools would be government funded.

Lorraine Sauve, director of the Alzheimer’s Society Suroit, said aside from the GPS tracker, there are strategies for families to improve the safety of those who live with the illness.

“I think it’s a good idea, with a bit of reservation. I like the GPS system, (but) I would like it to not replace the love and care of a caregiver, or the supervision of a caregiver,” said Sauve.

At the Griffith-McConnell residence in Cote St. Luc, the most serious Alzheimer’s patients live in locked wards and have bracelets that trigger locks on doors if those at risk of wandering get too close to them. Officials there say they have reservations about the GPS device.

“My hesitation about the GPS is really around privacy rights. Every individual has the right to privacy and having somebody know where you are at any given moment really destroys that right,” said Annette Rudy at the Griffith-McConnell residence.

Still Jesus Serrano said the GPS is the best way to keep those afflicted with the disease safe.

“One hundred per cent they should have that, because I don’t want anybody to have this happen, what happened to me,” he said.

 

GPS Shoe, GPS Tracking, Location Based Services December 26th, 2009

 

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 –(www.USEquityNews.com)– 03/12/2009 – If the above headline sounds a bit spooky, be prepared for things to get a lot spookier in the coming years – but also a lot more useful, valuable and fun. That’s because electronic technology has once again taken a turn that could, like the cell phone, affect much of your waking life, either directly or indirectly.

What we’re talking about is the technology, now available to anybody, to track (and record) the location and travels of just about anyone, including, in some cases, people who don’t even know they’re being tracked. This particular branch of the rapidly growing GPS/cellular tree usually goes by the innocent sounding name of Personal Location Services (PLS).

The PLS market may be relatively young, but it is trending strongly upward, and is now expected to be an $8 billion market by 2011. There are a number of companies that claim at least some portion of the market, though with different approaches and varying degrees of success.

GTX Corporation (OTCBB: GTXO) claims to be the preeminent leader in Personal Location Services. Their strength in the industry is based on the fact that, unlike many others, they offer embedded, customizable technology. By extreme miniaturization of GPS tracking and cellular location transmitting technology, their platforms can be integrated into almost any retail product, such as footwear and other wearables. Thus their market extends far beyond that of a single product line to embrace almost every potential application of the technology. Deployments currently in progress include exercise monitoring, law enforcement, maritime applications, pet tracking, cellular handsets, automotive/commercial/payload tracking, and a number of others.

There are also several other companies active in the field, though they tend to limit themselves to their own individual line of consumer retail location products.

• Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) is best known for their navigation products that sell worldwide, but they also have a tracking solution. Aimed towards pinpointing a dog’s position, the product kit includes a handheld GPS device and all-weather collar.

• Trimble Navigation Ltd. (NASDAQ: TRMB) offers a GPS vehicle tracking solution to help businesses more effectively manage mobile workers while increasing productivity, reducing operational costs and safeguarding drivers and vehicles.

• Location Based Technology, Inc. (OTCBB: LBAS) is a development stage technology company focused on their PocketFinder(R) and PetFinder(R) line of products for tracking people, pets, and luggage.

• GPS Industries Inc. (OTCBB: GPSN) provides GPS and Wi-Fi software and hardware for applications in golf course operations and residential community development. The company’s Inforemer-HDX(R) product vividly depicts each hole and provides precise distance measurement, among other features, utilizing GPS technology.

But, when it comes to Personal Location Services, the question becomes where will it end? There’s no easy-to-see boundary. If it helps you to find lost luggage, to keep an eye on your children, to locate a wayward pet, it sounds good. You may have even discovered all the gaming possibilities. But, as units become smaller, privacy issues become bigger, and must inevitably be addressed. The success of companies like GTX can be viewed as a good thing, but, as we’ve seen before, every new technology has a price.

Source: U.S. Equity News (March 12, 2009 – 10:00 AM EDT)

 

Location Based Services December 12th, 2009

 

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 Directional GPS has saved the lives of thousands by guiding emergency services to the precise location of people and pets in need of immediate medical attention. Getting there quickly however, may just be the first of many life and death decisions.

Daily, frontline medical and paramedical staff are asked to manage 911 emergency calls for unresponsive patients that cannot make their medical history available to those first on scene – a child in shock from eating peanuts, a self employed diabetic contractor fallen from a ladder or an Alzheimer’s victim found wandering in traffic. In fact, one in every four Americans has a chronic condition requiring special treatment or attention.

For the 13 million seeking treatment from emergency services getting the correct clinical assessment can be a life or death challenge – if the initial clinical diagnosis is compromised owing to a lack of accurate personal information, the treatment may be misdirected raising the risk of adverse reactions.

GTX Corp, a developer of personal location GPS devices and services is offering a secure web accessible digital ID tag through its missing people finder CodeAmber.com subsidiary. The Code Amber Alertag provides on the scene access to the essential information first responders must have to make informed treatment assessments. Question, when you go out for a jog, do you carry ID with you…does your child carry ID when riding a bike… when grandma is in the garden is she carrying any ID? Who should be called if you were unable to speak…

 

Location Based Services December 1st, 2009

 

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