Making a Child Locating System

celtic_hackr writes "Well, I never thought I'd be an advocate for placing GPS devices on people. However, since it took less than three days for my local school district to misplace my daughter, I have decided that something needs to be done. By the school district's own admission it has a recurring problem of placing children on the wrong buses. Fortunately, my daughter was located, with no thanks to the local school district. Therefore, I would like input on a way to be able to keep track of my child. I know there are personal tracking devices out there. I have nothing against these systems. But I want more than this. My specification are: 1) a small unobtrusive device I can place on my daughter, 2) an application to pull up on any computer, a map with a dot indicating the real-time position of my child, 3) a handheld device with the equivalent information, 4) [optional] a secure web application/plug-in I can install on my own domain allowing me to track her from anyplace in the world, 5) a means of turning it all off, 6) a Linux based solution of the above. I believe all the pieces for making such a system are out there. Has anyone built anything like this? Is there an open source solution? How would I go about building my own? Has anyone hacked any of these personal trackers before, to serve their own purposes? How does a tinfoil hat wearer engineer such a device to make sure Big-Brother isn't watching too? Can these devices be locked down so only certain devices can pick up the GPS location of an individual locator? What other recommendations do you have?"

Easiest solution is to go with Lojack

[Anonymous Coward]

Police and insurance companies are familiar with the operation of these units. And a few brackets will easily and securely mount the unit to your daughter's undercarriage.

FWIW, searching Google for "subcutaneous GPS"...

[kclittle]

... yields 36,9000 hits.

Great online service

[PIPBoy3000]

This one [themobiletracker.com] seemed to work pretty well at finding my wife, anyway.

Outsource the Problem

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Hack an iPhone or other smart phone to act as a torrent server over 3G
2. Fill the drive with Metallica tracks
3. Duct tape the phone to your daughter
4. If you need to know where she is, just ask the RIIA

here, lmgtfy

[Anonymous Coward]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=child+gps

Young parent? First kid off to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

FP has it right. Calm down.

I pity the poor boy who brings her home 15 minutes late from a date 12+ years from now.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Etrias]

Won't somebody think of the children!

Y'know, I got lost all the time as a kid. I threatened to run away and I think my parents reaction was "go ahead". It's almost as if they didn't want me around.

....uhmmm.

Hang on, I have a phone call to make.

Neural network...

[n3umh]

All you need to do is devise a complex computer with some decision making abilities and program it with information with destination coordinates in case it gets lost.

Program it to recognize a local authority figure like a policeman or teacher and provide them with the destination information so that they can help it find home.

I suspect the most effective hardware platform for such an application is some sort of fairly high-functioning biological organism.

Re:This is why Home Schooling is better

[91degrees]

Well, she's probably learning independence.

Re:You're solving the wrong problem

[canajin56]

a far better solution would be a call to your local news organizations about how the school district is getting kids lost on their bus system and admits to doing that regularly. Raise a stink at school board meetings, PTA meetings, and so forth. Get other parents involved. You're talking about a school district's incompetence endangering not only your own child but all the children in the district.

Two problems with this. First, it's a lot of work. Second, he wanted a solution that runs on Linux.

Re:Placing children on the wrong bus?

[dedazo]

Bah, when I was a kid they painted the bus number and route with magic marker on our foreheads. No one ever got on the wrong bus. Ever.

Re:Cell phone

[Thornburg]

Just get her a small cheap phone and teach her how to use it. If she gets lost due to the school or her own demise, she can call and say where she is.

Wow, which carriers have coverage in Purgatory?

Re:Cell phone

[Minwee]

If she gets lost due to the school or her own demise, she can call and say where she is.

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Either that or your phone company has a much better roaming agreement than mine does.

Title Ambiguity

[CopaceticOpus]

I believe this "Making a Child" Locating System will be of interest to many Slashdotters.

Re:child?!

[harryandthehenderson]

You find out your blowup doll is cheating on you?

Re:Cell phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Just get her a small cheap phone and teach her how to use it. If she gets lost due to the school or her own demise, she can call and say where she is.

Wow, which carriers have coverage in Purgatory?

NSAT&T.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

Your signature made a really poor combination with your last sentence...

Are you sure about those zeros?

[codewarren]

Or maybe it's your comma. Either way, a google search for "subcutaneous ants" has more hits.

Re:Cell phone

[Xerolooper]

Just get her a small cheap phone and teach her how to use it. If she gets lost due to the school or her own demise, she can call and say where she is.

Wow, which carriers have coverage in Purgatory?

All of them, that is where their customer service is located.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[MrLogic17]

Go low tech, with some thing the kid can't lose.

Use a sharpie marker on the kid's tummy, arm, whatever - "My name is [x]. My daddy's phone number is 555-1212"

Crime.

[EkriirkE]

Have her repeatedly commit crimes (theft?) and local law will install an ankle bracelet. With this she should be either placed under house arrest andr hopefully be allowed to go to school. If she ever deviates from either location, law enforcement will contact you and let you know soon to be followed by them escorting her home safely.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

My daddy's phone number is 555-1212

OMG!!! That's my daddy's phone number too!!!

Child Rustling

[sashapup]

I prefer my children to be more free-ranged. Ear tag and brand them to allow for quick identification should someone attempt to horn-in on my 'herd'.

Seriously.... This isn't a tech problem, this is a human problem. Get on the school district's case about this through any and all public means.

Re:Buy her a cellphone

[rev_sanchez]

I have another cell phone idea. Rig up the pre-paid cell phone to shoot emergency flares when the number is dialed. The wiring should be similar to the IED designs the insurgency has been using in Iraq but you'll want to substitute the bomb bit for a emergency flare. I really can't stress enough how important that last part is. Now, affix the device on some sturdy head ware. You'll probably want to base this hat on a steel wok and just add a chin strap and remove any handles. Now all you need to do is mount the device on top of the inverted wok/hat and you're all set.

If your kid goes missing just dial the number and even if you don't see the flares I'm pretty sure someone will contact you shortly after flaming rockets erupt from your child's hat. Wrong numbers might be an issue but it's a small price to pay for safety.

With all those distros...

[mr_lizard13]

...surely there's a Linux distro just for this sort of thing?

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

But now the evil pediatritions know your kids name!

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Captain Hook]

one of the clients i work for is a bettered womens advocacy group and shelter

The cheek of it, women trying to better themselves and then getting shelter as well.

And here I was thinking

[wurp]

And here I was thinking his sig made a great combination with his last sentence!

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[rahlquist]

Here I fixed this for you.....

Not paranoid enough. Your index card system relies on teachers, teachers aides, drivers and their ability to read -- the original poster wants to rely on nothing but technology.

Re:Outsource the Problem

[mooingyak]

4. If you need to know where she is, just ask the RIIA

Which, given the RIAA's investigative tactics, will yield 2 of her best friends, a teacher she had two years ago, and a random gas station attendant, but not the missing child.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[eln]

The Linux/Open Source requirement is to get the Slashdot editors to post the story.

Hey, this is Slashdot

[BlackSabbath]

Your post shows elements of learning and apologising. This just won't do.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[rpresser]

If you're going to redefine "the original problem" at will, then you can make any claim and sit back with a self-satisfied air.

"What the original poster really needs is a way of getting rid of this troublesome child before his life is ruined. Just ring: three-six-two-four-three-six, hey.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

(I'm not suggesting beating your child with a stick mind you).

So, it's OK to pelt them with carrots?

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[YourExperiment]

Get her a Firefly or similar device.

I know he's concerned about his daughter, but getting an entire starship to transport her to and from school just seems like overkill.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Locke2005]

What's wrong with that? My parents used to leave me in the car parked outside the bar while they went out for a night of drinking, and other than wasting all my time on slashdot, I turned out pretty much ok! Other tricks they pulled: put the kids in Coach while they flew First Class, and on trips left the kids in a motel room while they went out for the evening, then yelled at the kids because they told the motel clerk they didn't know where their parents were. But guess what... kids are pretty good at taking care of themselves.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[dzfoo]

>> Goodness...how did we EVER survive as a species before cell phones and GPS trackers??!?!

It was a different time; kidnappers and paedophiles were not invented until the 1990s, along with terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. It's the interwebs I tells ya.

      -dZ.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

As a parent of apples and oranges, i can agree that none of you understand the complex situation in which i find myself in.

Yep: remember poor little fruit stand

[way2trivial]

http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/n/name.htm [sermonillustrations.com]
"When the 1960s ended, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school.

That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

"Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?" they offered. And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?" He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn't seem much odder than Heather's or Sun Ray's.

At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. "Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?"

He didn't answer. That wasn't strange. He hadn't answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn't matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony.""

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[_Swank]

marco polo?

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[jeff419]

Can we get an IP check on this, I bet it came from Redmond.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[linux_geek_germany]

Dear Bot, you just failed the Turing test...

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[LordKronos]

Well, being that the term "infant" is defined as up to the age of 1, I don't think GPS tracking would have a whole lot of effect on infant mortality statistics, no matter whether you live in Africa or Hicksville.

Re:Holy Crap! Calm down

[whopis]

A child is about a 1,000 times more likely to be killed by drowning in a neighbor's pool than abducted by a total stranger. 10,000 times more likely to be seriously injured or even killed playing school sports. And 100 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Parents need to stop watching CSI and Criminal Minds and Law & Order.

Ok, fine...

So build the tracking device with proper flotation devices, padding, and a lightning rod with good grounding then the problem's solved.

Not so hard to figure out.