Smart Watches, from Parents to their children
A watch, is a
statement, a symbol of independence, a Swiss army knife.
Hence, the concept
of a smart watch is a misnomer,
especially with regards to today’s technology, where the watch is used as an
appendage to the smart phone.
One inkling of the
true power of the watch, is in the film Expendables III where Mel Gibson’s
character is kidnapped by Sylvester Stallone’s men. He tells them “When my boys
get here, you guys are in for a lot of
hurt.” They’re confused, till they realize that his watch, a normal looking
analog watch, is a GPS tracker. Now, we are getting somewhere.
A watch is not for
adults, since they would never replace their smart phone with it anyway.
But a watch for kids,
hmm, now that’s an idea.
Kids love watches, it
makes them feel like adults, like something their mom or dad wears. Today,
there are already watches in the market for kids, which come with mini
projectors, a baby of the Pico projectors available in some phones.
Then they want some
kind of content, like cartoons and wallpapers, where the wallpaper is on the
screen of the watch and the cartoons can be played through the Pico projector.
But, as a parent,
what is the value of the smart watch to you?
Imagine the ability
to turn on your smartphone at any time and find out where your kid really is at
that point in time.
Imagine a device
which lets the child contact you or your spouse or any guardian you define, in
case of any emergency.
Imagine a device
which stores all the relevant details such as blood group, Home Address and
relevant contact numbers, in the case where an accident has happened and your
child can’t communicate with emergency personnel.
So, there you have
it, a smart watch which actually lets the kid call numbers programmed by the
parent into his phone, via a SIM card in the phone, .
A smart watch, which
lets the parent know the exact location of the child, via a GPS receiver in the
watch and even if the GPS is not in range, the SIM card can be used for
triangulation using GSM cell antennas.
A smart watch, where
great content, like pictures, movies and music can be pre-loaded by the parent,
from the operator.
While these concepts
might sound space age, the technologies behind them have already been in use
for over a decade.
A company called
Satguide, has been producing a child phone for parents, with features like Geo
Fencing, where if the child leaves the school, an alert is created and sent to
the parent.
Amber Alert in USA,
is a child abduction alert system, where alerts are issued by authorities, using radio, television, road
signs and wireless technology even through Google maps,Bing and Facebook, to
broadcast information regarding serious abductions to the public based on the
following criteria:
- Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place.
- The child must be at risk of serious injury or death.
- There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert.
- The child must be under 18 years of age.
Now in India, there is an Amber
Alert GPS device which alerts you towards the movement of your child.
For Pico projection, there are
phones like the iBall Projector Andi 4a which even comes with its own tripod
stand, to allow you to project images onto a screen.
For transferring content from an
online dashboard, there is a technology called SyncML Device Synchronisation
and Device Management, which lets you monitor the content on a device from an
online dashboard. Hence, the content on the child’s device, can be fully
controlled from a dashboard either on the parent’s smart phone or computer.
So,
there you have it, a device which lets the child be a Man :p
A
device which lets the parent be more at peace about the safety of their child.
A
device which lets the child call the parents whenever there’s a situation.
A
device where the mobile operator can source and distribute content for
children.
And
finally, a smarter watch for children, than has ever been worn by men :p