Wednesday, February 14, 2007

118 GPS shoes find the lost

I believe I've already said that my dad a month or so ago peed in the hallway on the wall. Last week my mom caught him peeing on a different wall. She yelled at him and he went right into the bathroom and used the toilet.
The dog, for the first time since she's had him, peed in the house too. I lose my pee-everywhere cat and my mom gets a pee-everywhere husband.
This item was in the news a few days ago and is now getting more wide-spread coverage. A man has invented sneakers with built-in GPS circuitry. Unlike some of the other GPS things I've looked at, where you download the information which isn't "live", this is live GPS enabling you to locate people. The sneakers cost $325 plus $20/month to monitor them. You can activate the GPS by pushing a button on the shoe itself if you get lost (say, while hiking) or call in with a code word if you've lost your loved one (child, AD patient, etc). The web site is horrible, all Flash animation, very slow, hard to navigate (which is why I detest Flash).
Unfortunately, my dad, who was once obsessed with his green sneakers, has now abandoned them and will only wear his shoes. Everywhere. Even to bed. Plus he takes a triple wide which the GPS sneakers don't offer. My mom said he wouldn't wear them. I wouldn't give him the choice; I'd take away all his other footwear.
The next logical step, of course, is to be able to add the circuitry to ANY shoe, not just their brand. (They are coming out with a way to swap the GPS unit between various shoes of THEIR brand.) Actually, it's a bracelet, like my dad already has, with such a chip in it. Somewhere someone's got to be working on it.