A GPS Tracking Device for Every Situation

At GTX Corp we make GPS Tracking Devices for every need, including GPS Tracking for your cell phone.

Using our GL 100 GPS Tracking Device, students from the Bay School were able to pinpoint the location of their near-space balloon from start to finish. Synopsis below...

Dear GTX Corp,

I was lucky enough to have been lent one of your GL 100 LOCi GPS tracking devices for a recent high school project. It worked tremendously and I want to describe the experience for you.

On May 22nd, 2010, a balloon containing probes and an HD video camera constructed by 12 students at The Bay School of San Francisco was launched from Carmel State River Beach, and traveled over 75,000 feet into the air before bursting and returning to earth some 80 minutes later. The balloon and its attached equipment traveled close to 80 miles east, landing on the edge of the central valley. In order to observe the movements vertically and horizontally of the balloon, including locating its landing spot so that recovery could be achieved, the team of students used three separate methods to track the travel of the near space balloon.

One of these methods was the use of a LOCi tracker. This device, only a couple inches in length, is a new design from GTX Corp (GTXO) using a multi-step process to track whatever it is attached to in real time. The first operation is to figure out its location by triangulation from satellites, using standard GPS technology. It then broadcasts its location in cellular wave format, using standard cell towers to get the information back to GTX’s servers, where the location is stored for the end user to see via GTX’s website.

Traveling up to 75,000 feet in the air, and surviving under the extreme conditions that prevail there is an extreme challenge for any electronic device, but the LOCi tracker preformed admirably, recording its location and sending out its location whenever it was possible to establish a connection to a cell tower. When the balloon had traveled to a certain height, it was impossible to reach down to the cell towers which were not designed for this purpose, so there is a temporary blank spot on the map when this occurred, however, after the balloon ascended to within range of a cell tower, it immediately began re-broadcasting.

The LOCi tracker worked remarkably well in finding its location and sending it back out so that from anywhere in the world, we could view its location via internet. The genius of the design is in the simplicity. There is very few ways for this to go wrong, and we did not experience any of it. Without accurate tracking on the balloon, we not only would not have known its height and travel pattern, but we also never would have found where it landed, which was necessary to recover the recorded video. The LOCi tracker never failed in this regard. Here is a webpage including information about, and a video of, the flight of the near space balloon: http://ikaros.xrg.us/. 

Robin Cassatt-Johnstone Age 16, Junior The Bay School

Keeping track of seniors with Alzheimer's 

Dealing with Senior's who walk off.

Rosemary McClure, Special to the Los Angeles Times

May 29, 2010

The e-mail alert shouted its message: "Missing Person with Alzheimer's. PLEASE HELP." It was sent to Alzheimer's Assn. chapters and to law enforcement officials within hours after an Orange County woman disappeared while on a short trip to visit a friend.

The woman had set out in her car, made a wrong turn and became confused, says her family, who asked that her name not be used to protect her privacy.

During the next two days, she zigzagged her way across two states, making one wrong turn after another, putting ever more miles between herself and her home as she headed east.

"She had a cellphone, but it wasn't turned on," says her daughter, Susan. "It was a nightmare."

The 86-year-old woman had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, but her wrong-way journey shocked her family because until then, she had been able to function normally.

As soon as Susan called the Alzheimer's Assn. to report that her mother was missing, the organization began sending out alerts asking Good Samaritans who saw the woman to contact MedicAlert + Safe Return, a 24-hour nationwide emergency response service for individuals who wander.

The woman, meanwhile, was still at the wheel, driving south to San Diego, then east to Tucson. Finally, she pulled over to the side of the road and asked an Arizona state trooper how to get to California. He directed her to west Interstate 10. Several hours later she was stopped near Indio by a California Highway Patrol officer, who contacted her family.

"She's doing fine now," says Susan. "We took away her car and license, of course."

That story has a happy ending, but many confused seniors who become lost are never found again. The Alzheimer's Assn. estimates that 60% of individuals with Alzheimer's will wander at least once during the progression of the disease. Up to 70% of these individuals wander more than once, and up to several times. One study reported that nearly half of those not found within 24 hours die — usually from dehydration, exposure or injury.

"It's a scary situation for families who have a relative who wanders," says Dr. Lisa Gibbs, a UC Irvine geriatrician who directs the school's Health Assessment Program for Seniors. "It's easy for the person to get lost and hurt. They're also very vulnerable to people who might want to take advantage of them."

Products such as MedicAlert + Safe Return offer families a way to track lost loved ones: It's one in a burgeoning field, with dozens of devices on the market and new devices and products popping up all the time. Most tracking systems are GPS-based, using the same technology that's found in car navigation units.

Television commercials for the devices, called family trackers, have become commonplace; they are aimed primarily at parents who worry about their children wandering away during an outing. A small device can be stowed in a child or adult's pocket, purse or backpack; some are incorporated into wrist bands. They range in price from $100 to about $400, with monitoring costs of up to $80 per month. Most can be purchased online.

At the low end of the technology spectrum is MedicAlert + Safe Return, http://www.medicalert.org/safereturn, an inexpensive program endorsed by the Alzheimer's Assn.

The product consists of an engraved wristband or dog tag that contains information about the wearer. One call to the number written on the band activates a community support network to help reunite the lost person with their family. When a person is found, a citizen or law enforcement official can call a toll-free 24-hour emergency response number, and the individual's family or caregivers are contacted, as in the Orange County woman's case. Costs are $24.95 to set up a plan and an additional $25-a-year fee.

The downside? A Good Samaritan has to see the tag and be able to get close enough to read it. The upside: In the Southland, 160 people have been found because of the Medic Alert + Safe Return tag, according to Jane Dickinson, Alzheimer's Assn. representative. The product also includes the Alzheimer's Assn. e-mail alert system, which was triggered when Susan's mother was reported missing.

Comfort Zone, another product endorsed by the association, is similar to other GPS devices on the market, except that it was designed primarily for people who have dementia. Family members can program it to operate in several ways: In early stages of the disease, it can be used to track a person in a car. In later stages, it can be converted to a bracelet. Alerts are sent to caregivers via computer or text messages. Costs are $199 to $299 to purchase the device, $45 for activation and $45 to $79.99 in monthly monitoring fees.

"What complicates search and rescue for individuals with Alzheimer's disease is that, unlike a lost child, many will not respond to calls to them, nor will they call out for help," says educator Andrew Carle. "They often also become quickly frightened and attempt to hide — making locating them more difficult." Carle, an assistant professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., specializes in aging and senior housing issues.

A problem inherent with many of the devices is that they can be removed: A patient with dementia might take off a bracelet or remove a device from his or her pocket, Carle says.

"Paranoia is a manifestation of the disease, so people with AD will often remove anything placed on them with which they are unfamiliar — for example, a 'clip on' or other distinct device. For the same reason, they are also adept at getting around locks, alarms or other devices intended to stop them — and, once having done so, are difficult to find."

Carle's personal favorite among the monitoring systems on the market is scheduled to be released for retail sale this summer: GPS Shoes. The shoes, which will be sold at http://www.foot.com, (800) 526-2739, will contain a tiny embedded tracking device. Whenever the wearer wanders off more than a pre-set distance, the caregiver will receive an alert by telephone and computer.

The Aetrex Ambulator GPS Shoe will retail for $200 to $300, with monthly tracking available for $22.95 to $39.95, says Patrick Bertagna, chairman of GTX Corp., which builds the tracking device that will be embedded in the shoes.

The device will work anywhere there is cell coverage. If Susan's mother had been wearing the shoes when she departed on her 500-mile journey, her family might have found her more quickly.

This column on caring for, and staying connected with, aging family members appears monthly. Comments: home@latimes.com

Source, The Los Angeles Times