"lojacking" your kids?!??

[CAP Aircrew]

I thought it might be best that I chime in here since beleive it or not, I am the Corporate Recruiter for LoJack! Yup it's me!

NotUrsula, I mean no disrespect but I do need to correct you a bit on the LoJack device. While most people think it is a GPS based product, it is not. LoJack's technology is a radio fequency (RF) based device.

The big difference between RF and GPS is that GPS is based on line of sight with a sattelite. Interupt that line of sight and your tracking device becomes null and void.

Radio frequency is just what it is and Radio frequency will indeed penetrate through buildings and the ground for that matter. So if someone was to steal a car and park it in a garage, GPS tracking becomes ineffective whereas RF can still track the object.

Okay here comes my shameless plug for LoJack. This is what sets us apart from from any other competitor out there. We have an immediate tie in with Law Enforcement and our recovery rates are better than 90%.

To the OP, LoJack gets letters in pretty much every day asking for this or that to be "lojacked" and the letters asking for children to be "lojacked" are numerous. I'm not privey to what the folks in engineering are working on but who knows!

That said, I think Disney, while not imune, is a place where we all share a common bond and the best advice would be to always keep a watchful eye out on our little ones.

 

[NotUrsula]

My apologies, I was misinformed. I don't work with LoJack, and have never purchased any of their products. I was told they used GPS technology for long-range application, and I foolishly did not double-check that. I do work with RFID, and with magnetic systems.

What you are telling us then, is that LoJack uses active RFID tags? As active ID tags contain a power source to boost the signal, they can work when there is interference or metal in between the tag and the reader, and they also work over fairly large distances. They also can be read/write, which allows a fair amount of data to be encoded on them.

It is important to note that none of that is true for passive RFID tags, which are the sort that are used in the "microchip" you might implant in a pet (or the tag you might put on a small bracelet or a luggage tag.) Passive tags are fine for identification purposes when the subject is holding nearly still right next to a reader, but they are not effective for tracking. The longer the scan distance on a passive tag, the larger it needs to be, but even if it is several inches across, it still won't scan reliably over a distance greater than about 3 meters.

Edited to add that when I said that "these devices" don't work nearly as well for recovering lost things, I was speaking of devices that use passive RFID or magnetic tags, not those using active RFID tags. I meant no aspersion on the quality of LoJack's services. They do what they do very well.

 

[Savsmommy]

I have the Angel Alert child distance monitor.

It's affordable, 19.99 or 34.99 for 2-pack.

www.angelalert.net

 

[crisi]

After several trips of tagging my kids, then losing the tags or forgetting them back in the room, we use the good old and cheap Sharpie Marker to write our cell phone number on their hand.

The biggest risk at Disney is that your child gets lost. Generally speaking, people - Cast Members and a zillion parents all worried about their own children who would want the same done for them - notice a lost kid pretty fast and they are reunited with parents while everyone is still in the vacinity. The biggest problems are the "hiders" (if you have one, you know - you don't leave a store without checking under all the clothes racks) since no one notices a lost child under a rack. (The other big problem are the kids old enough to be on their own that don't have Mom or Dad's permission to wander off, but are too big for people to stop them with "Have you lost your Mommy?")

 

[labdogs42]

I just saw a GPS dog collar on Martha the other day. It might look a little funny on your kids , but it did have some neat features! You can set a "virtual fence" around a fixed point (this wouldn't work at WDW) and if the dog leaves the "fenced" area, the GPS device sends a message to your cell phone telling you where the dog is! I thought this was so cool. I'm totally paranoid about losing my dogs, but I haven't had them chipped because the chip system isn't standardized and some chips aren't readable by some readers. They do have tattooed ID though. I won't be buying the GPS collars either, but the idea was very cool. Something like that might be cool foe kids, too. You could set the "virtual fence" around their school or playground, or wherever they are supposed to be and it would alert you if they left that area. Could be cool.

My kid does not have an id tattoo , but I'm taking him to WDW anyway! He'll be 15 months, so I think he'll spend much of his time in the stroller or being carried. I'm considering getting him a leash or some of those "reigns" I keep hearing about (anyone know where to get those?). I also saw some kind of child safety locator device in the One Step Ahead catalog the other day. Their site is down right now, or I would have posted the info for you. Have fun on your trip!

 

[Schmeck]

Have there even been any studies done on the possible side effects of the power sources for these fancy devices? Would you want that implanted under your skin?

Harnesses used to be sold at WalMart, in the baby section. Don't know if they have them there any more. If you do chose to use one, remember that they do not make your child any safer, and that the ones with the longer cords, or spiral cords, are very dangerous, as the child can get too far away and someone can come between you and the child.

I would think that 2-3 yr olds would spend most of the walking time at WDW in a stroller anyways!

 

[drew2wdw]

Here's a link to the same One Step Ahead locator the previous poster mentioned: http://www.sensationalbeginnings.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=S+4+1034+PI

I have not tried it, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea. It only works up to 150 feet though, so it seems more useful for the "my child was right here 10 secs ago and now he's not" scenario.

 

[CAP Aircrew]

NotUrsula,

Please no harm taken. I never meant to come off that way. And being the recruiter, I'm not always up to speed on the actual technology. In that respect, I defer to you because I can tell you have much more knowledge in that area than I do. Are you looking for a job? Willing to move to Mass?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we must be using something in the form of an active RFID tag but not being on the engineering side of the house, I can't say for certain.

As I mentioned earlier, LoJack has a very good relationship with Law Enforcement at all levels. In fact, we outfit and equip law enforcement vehicles (cars, planes and helicopters) with LoJack tracking computers. This is the device that tells you were the stolen car is. Many times this vehicle or stolen asset is moving so going on your theory of active RFID would seem logical.

I'm not knocking GPS in any form. In fact if you look at my tag line you can see that I also fly for the Civil Air Patrol. When we are conducting search and rescue operations in the middle of the night, we are using GPS tracking products to locate the downed aircraft or missing person provided the person is carrying a personal locater beacon.

Bringing this back full circle, I'm hoping that LoJack comes out with many more applications for this device so that I can retire a happy and wealthy man!

 

[rhiannonwales]

Big brother can watch me all he wants in the matter of my child being safe!

You know i hear statements like that all the time...and while i am all for my kids being safe, i think that there has to be a line drawn at where the benefit vs. risk is marked.

These days all you have to do is invoke the phrase "Think of the children" or "Its to make the world a safer place" and you get a license to do most anything. Hey if we develop the potential to punish people for thinking of doing bad things (thought crimes) should we do it becuase it MIGHT make the world safer?

Step back and think about all the privacy and freedom we have signed away over the years in the name of "safety"......Do you really feel any safer?Most folks will probably say no.Call me a nut but i think we are enslaving ourselves by inches.Its easy to give one inch.. after all whats an inch? But think.Two inches a year over 20 years.....thats almost 3.5 feet.It adds up.

And as far as cell phone GPS systems go... well its one of the reasons i dont have a cell phone.Or Onstar.And why i never give my phone number at the checkout.And why i have no credit cards.Or a mortgage.We own everything outright.Now granted we dont have much but we live mostly below the radar.
Try googling your own nwame and see how much of you private info is available.Where you shop.What you buy.Your age.Your income.

I know im going off on a ramble and i sound like a whacko.But its amazing how few people really know that its SO easy to know all about you.You know those little questionares attached to a lot of warranty forms? They ask about where you live, how much you make "for infomational purposes".Guess what? A company farms out the data entry for those cards.... and one of their clients is the Texas Department of Corrections.Yep convicts looking at YOUR info.

Chiling isnt it?

 

[In a hurry]

The concept of tracking people gives me the creeps.

I have taught my daughter to be safe. I watch her, and make sure she is in the care of good people. I know her biggest danger is being assaulted by someone she knows. My goal is for her to not be afraid of the world, but to take reasonable care of herself. And that is what I must model fo her, rather than abstract, illogical paranoia.

I see kids in school that are afraid of kidnappers grabbing them wherever they go, and it isn't pretty. What a sad way to live.

 

[rhiannonwales]

In a hurry,
I couldnt agree more.