Parents who are looking for a more advanced way to track their children’s whereabouts can breathe a sigh of relief now that Jiobit has launched the Jiobit Smart Tag. The smart GPS tracker is currently available for presale and solves a couple of problems inherent in many of the other ways parents use to keep track of their kids. It has a battery designed to last a full week, which many wearable or phone-based solutions typically can’t claim. It’s also somewhat rugged, including waterproofing. Beyond that, Jiobit’s Smart Tag features built-in security and machine learning algorithms to make things even easier.
First of all, it needs to be said that the device isn’t necessarily cheap. As of this writing, the Jiobit Smart Tag is on sale for $149.99 and comes with a free year of service for the first 1,000 orders. According to the presale site, that’s a saving of around $160 overall. With that said, it would be fairly foolish to say that one can put a price tag on protecting children. Smart Tag works by securely attaching to a piece of clothing a child is wearing. It sends automatic notifications to the smartphone of a parent across 120 countries. The battery lasts up to a week with what Jiobit calls “Progressive Beaconing” which uses various sensors and radios utilizing wireless networks to pinpoint location, improve coverage, and minimize power consumption. That long battery life makes it ideal for placement on a child’s favorite jacket, shoes, or oft-worn piece of clothing. Machine learning helps the Smart Tag to zero in on and analyze frequented routes, help in analyzing a child’s behavior, and provide some context to what is going on with the child. The system is built alongside an encryption card, making it more difficult for the device to be circumvented.
All things considered, devices like these can be hugely beneficial in keeping track of kids whether they are at the park, going to or from school, or any number of other activities. Losing a child, even only temporarily, can be a living nightmare. In fact, the idea behind Jiobit’s Smart Tag stems from just such an experience that the founder of the company and previous executive of Motorola, John Renaldi, went through. The incident happened after his son, Ethan, went missing during an outing at the park. He was only missing for around a half hour and was eventually found to be safe but a device like Jiobit’s Smart Tag could have made all the difference. Moreover, it could make an even greater difference in less benign situations. The presale and its included benefits probably won’t last for too long and the device is only currently available for shipping to the U.S. but any concerned parents wanting to check it out can head over to the website for more details. Orders placed during the presale, according to the preorder site, will ship by December of this year.
