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GPS Shoes Track Alzheimer's Patients
GPS footwear for tracking the location of Alzheimer's patients is in the design phase by GTX (a GPS personal location services company) and Aetrex (pedorthic footwear).
(GTX and Aetrex combine to create GPS tracking footwear [GTX])
Atrex footwear will allow family members to instantly see the whereabouts of the wearer of the shoes. It is also possible to set up a geo-fence around a user's home that would trigger an alert to a cell phone or computer.
“There are a growing number of seniors suffering from dementia and we know over 50% ‘wander’ without anyone’s knowledge of where they are and where they are heading,” said Chris Walsh, an ex Nike executive and current COO of GTX Corp."Five million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's and this is estimated to grow to more than twenty million as the Boomer population ages," states GTX Advisor Andrew Carle.
Shoes make a good choice for this technology because Alzheimer's patients have a tendency to remove unfamiliar objects from their person. Product testing should begin by Q4 of 2009.
From a science-fictional standpoint, this kind of device will create a map of the wearer of the GTX GPS shoes. In his classic 1936 novel The Cometeers, Jack Williamson wrote about a remarkable device that would create a map of your movements across an alien world.
He reached to unsnap the cartograph from his belt. He had brought that tiny instrument to map their movements. He opened the cover and peered at the strip...
(Read more about Jack Williamson's cartograph)
If you are thinking that they're putting GPS into everything these days, you probably don't even need to read the following set of links to fascinating related stories:
- Pribot Robotic Prius Tours 'Frisco
The self-driving car used computer maps and GPS to find its way around without human assistance. - GPS Lingerie 'Find Me If You Can'
Currently, this item is being marketed only to "techno-savvy women." With video. - StarChase Tracking Tag And Star Wars Homing Beacon
How to track criminals on a high-speed chase? Previously seen only in Star Wars, behold the throwable, sticky homing beacon tracking device.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/6/2009)
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