GPS datalogger captures speed, coordinates to SD

Parents looking to stalk their own children keep a watchful eye on the kids, but not interested in logging onto a website every five minutes to monitor Junior's whereabouts, can now ditch the live feed in favor of a product that lets them record their youngster's movements for later perusal. E-tailer Spark Fun Electronics has started offering a complete kit containing a GPS module, battery pack, embedded antenna, and most importantly, an SD-capable datalogger board that can capture up to 440 hours of coordinate data on a 256MB card, and display the resulting map on Google Earth. That's right, mom and dad, instead or paying for one of those commercial cellphone tracking services, simply sewing the Lassen iQ FAT16 Datalogger kit into a child's letter jacket or hiding it in their car will give you all the Big Brother-esque information you desire (including speed, for parents of lead-footed teens), and on your own time to boot. Showing your kids that extra little bit of overprotective love will set you back $140.

[Via Make]

[Andrew @ Jun 9th 2006 10:12PM]

This is messed up. If you would even consider using a product like this then you've already failed as a parent, in my opinion.

[SuiXide @ Jun 9th 2006 10:37PM]

Any parent requiring the use of this is obviously not doing their job right in the first place.

[Scott @ Jun 9th 2006 10:57PM]

I don't think it's messed up for a parent to use this. It's not like the kid will say, "Oh, hey mom, on the way to jenny's house, I stopped at zack's to score some weed, and john's house to get in a quickie." As a parent, you should know what you're kids are up to, and know they probably aren't going to let you in on stuff they know is wrong. With all the stuff out there, no matter how much you love them and how well you mentor them, their friends will have a larger influence; you can't just blindly trust them. This is a tool for the kids to earn their trust, or get their ass sent to military school. If I found my child telling the truth about where she goes, then after time, I'd remove it. Treating your kids as guilty until proven innocent may sound wrong, but it's better safe than sorry. If my kid lies to me, I wanna know about it, as it's better for both of to know, and fix the problem!

Of course, there is room for abuse of this tool. Can't ignore that. None of us would want to be tracked, whether we're hiding something or not. Tracking your wife might be questionable, but tracking your own kid is perfectly fine. Overprotective, maybe, but only for a temporary time, a "test" if you will.

[Matt @ Jun 9th 2006 10:58PM]

Andrew, i couldn't have said it better myself. It's just sad that parents have to spy like this to monitor their kids.

[A guy @ Jun 9th 2006 11:42PM]

Wow! My kids are younger, and knowing where they are is a *huge* priority of mine. I need to balance that with giving them some freedom too. I'm not running out and buying this, but a tool that let's me know where my kids are and where they have been can be incredibly helpful in talking to them about keeping safe. They aren't driving age, and won't be for a decade (for the oldest), but to be able to monitor when they've gone to places that might not be safe for them (after talking to them about what is safe) could be very valuable in making sure they know where they can and can't hang out safely.

Maybe you all live in beautiful suburbs where you think your folks shouldn't worry about you, but for me, there are places that aren't more than a mile away that I don't want my kids going to alone. Partly for drowning reasons, but partly for homeless people reasons. (Lest you think I just hate homeless people, you should come here and hear the chaotic incomprehensible screams that some of our homeless people engage in) They aren't homeless because they chose a 'free' lifestyle. They aren't hobos. More often they are homelees because they can't abide by the 'rules' that we all live by (they need mental counseling, and Tom Cruise blast me, chemical help). And I'll be damned if my kids go someplace where those 'rules' aren't followed. Those 'rules' often involve respecting someone else's safety.

In Harvard square, a young woman was killed not too long ago, because she told her friends not to do what the 'homeless people' wanted. 'My' homeless people, about a mile away from Harvard Square, are (hopefully) less homicidal, but are still clearly not able to grasp the same set of mores that the rest of us do.

To know when my kids are investigating the area is invaluable to me.

[kerunt @ Jun 10th 2006 12:17AM]

I completely agree with Andrew and SuiXide. If a parent feels the need for this, then he/she failed, and should spend the $140 on "how to be a parent" counselling! If you don't trust your kids to make right decisions, talk to them, and talk to them again. Kids/teens aren't idiots, and shouldn't be treated as such. I'm a teen myself (18), and I am confident in saying I know my limit. Yeah, I do. No, really, I do. I go out and party just like everyone else (oh no! scary alcohol!), but I'm not dumb, and neither are my friends. Common sense will work 99% of the time, as long as you got it.

Such invasion of privacy is outrageous! You feel the need to always know where your kids are? Do they feel that need too? How would you like it if THEY had the same device hidden in YOUR car? Please don't give me the "they are our kids" bull. Kids or not, they are people just like you, and deserve the same privacy you do.

[furtim @ Jun 10th 2006 12:24AM]

Well, this is a gadget blog, not a parenting blog, so I'm going to talk about something else.

The "speed" recorded by this device is pretty misleading. There's no speed sensor onboard, but rather the velocity (speed plus heading) are derived from the coordinate fixes, so you get kind of an average. At the finest granularity, you can get updates once per second, which will be vaguely accurate, but you're gonna bury yourself in data pretty quickly! On top of that, the velocity calculation is also subject to GPS errors. The random errors that will affect this are fairly small (I think in the sub-meter range, even), but even still it's something to consider.

I imagine the actual location is sort of the important bit, of course, but I just want to make that point in case anybody gets too into the idea of using this as a speedometer.

[furtim @ Jun 10th 2006 12:27AM]

Oh, and while I'm up, GPS data loggers are hardly anything new. Just they tend to be marketted more at scientific kinds of applications, whereas these guys seem to be pointing at a somewhat more commercial/personal market.

[BobbyW @ Jun 10th 2006 12:33AM]

I've used a GPS in my car and it usually displays in MPH exactly what the speedometer says. If it can get enough readings(and store them)the software should be able to interpret them in a way that accurately provides the speed.

[Paul @ Jun 10th 2006 1:03AM]

furtim,

You are incorrect about how speed is calculated. It is calculated off the doppler shift of the carrier frequency of the GPS signal received from the the sats. It is VERY accurate above 5-10 mph. It does NOT use the position info to determine how far you moved each second.

[furtim @ Jun 10th 2006 2:16AM]

Hmm. Could be. I poked around and found one reference to Garmin receivers doing that, so I guess you're right. I hadn't heard of it before, though.

[gregor @ Jun 10th 2006 4:30AM]

I don't know why every time a GPS logger is presented everybody's first thought is how they could track their children and good parenting comes to question.

There are numerous alternative usages.
Take a look for example: http://triptracker.net/trip/263/map/.

A simple service which visualizes your trips. A kid would more likely voluntarily use the tracker if he gets something from it.
I use my GPS tracker almost every time I go somewhere and no parent is forcing me to do it.

[Moogle @ Jun 10th 2006 7:41AM]

It'd be a nice thing to have for any number of reasons, possibly such as figuring your way around a new town, or mapping a hiking trail you like. My parents want to map the extents of the cypress swamp/lake they live on and you can't tell from arial photos beneath the trees. This would be great for them.

If I had kids, I think it would be valid to trade off borrowing the family car for knowing where you're going and how fast. Good parenting is great, but the truth is that your kid is a person with influences you can't control. I was always the good kid. I have never touched any illegal substances and never drank until well after I was 21. Later on I talked with people my age I knew as kids and a lot of the people who I thought were like me, I learned they were all weed smoking sluts. The smart kids just knew how to completely hide it from their parents. It was kinda disturbing. Yes, good parenting is essential. But you're kidding yourself if you think it alone keep your kid out of trouble.

(Not condoning spying, I think this should only be used with the full knowledge by the kid, which makes this impractical for anything other than a car, imho.)

[Myles @ Jun 10th 2006 8:30AM]

I'd like to see all of you people who are bashing this and saying if a parent needs this they failed as a parent...to try being a parent for a couple years.

Heh.

[gpsidea @ Jun 10th 2006 8:51AM]

I want a device that doesn't take batteries (uses an adapter) and has settings so that I can keep track of business miles, charitable miles, personal miles, and records to removable flash media. I think cars should have this built into their odometers anyway, but a GPS unit would be a great way to keep track of dates, times, locations, and mileage for when tax time roles around again. This could pay for itself with deductions!

[fulani @ Jun 10th 2006 8:59AM]

I'd like one of those - so I can see just how unfeasibly fast my new car is on the back roads...!

[GhostDoggy @ Jun 10th 2006 9:26AM]

Actually, this isn't new. I have seen such products that record a given amount of time, and it records other things as well via the OBD2 module. In fact, the last one I ran across deliberately tageted to the parental audience. But, given the fact that driving is not anyone's right, and kids are typically not mature enough to weight in the consequences of their actions prior to commiting to something 'exciting', I can see the reasoning to implementing this.

[Tim @ Jun 10th 2006 9:48AM]

Junior! YOU said you were going to the LIBRARY with our car. Now I see you went to this address - and then when you left 15 minutes later you were going 65 in a 30 zone. GROUNDED!

[Simon @ Jun 10th 2006 10:23AM]

The idea of spying on you kids is not that of the manufacturer. So we should probably start discussing Evan Blass's childhood and what gives him ideas like that ;)

Regarding the tech it is not that new, but it's a nice little package that could be used in many ways. So I think it has every right to be blogged here. Appart form the usual "This is a blog, not a news site."

[error411 @ Jun 10th 2006 2:25PM]

I find it interesting that those opposed to using technology like this for verifying kids whereabouts are usually people without kids...or teenagers.

This technology would benefit me as I have 4 kids that I trust...but verify.

[freakon @ Jun 10th 2006 4:35PM]

It would be very awkward if a kid found it, and broke it. How the hell would the parent confront the kid?
140$ down the drain.

[Tim @ Jun 10th 2006 5:59PM]

Either:

a. You tell your kid about it, and your kid feels betrayed and will probably make him/her more likely to do the things you don't want, or

b. You don't tell your kid, and he/she will find out eventually, and feel even more betrayed and more likely to do the things you don't want.

[Pam @ Jun 10th 2006 10:06PM]

I discussed this nifty little gadget with my teenager and we decided that unless you put it every article of clothing the kid owns it winds up being useless. the clothes or jacket can be handed to someone else.

now putting one in the car would be a good thing. the kid knowing the device is in the car would make him/her a more careful driver cause they know they are being watched.

it's like making a kid do homework. if you are not looking at them they don't do it. if you are not looking at them when they drive they won't be safe.

I know my kid gets a sence of security knowing that I care enough to stand on him to get his homework done.

I have even discussed a inside and outside camera in the car for him. like I said, knowing that he is being watched he will be better behaved.

you and I are watched every day when we drive by other drivers. teenagers don't get it that the world does not relvolve around them until later in life. and even then that's is iffy. giggles.

Safety is more important then trust!

[Andrew @ Jun 10th 2006 10:24PM]

Myles, I was the first person to comment on this article (and condemn the product), and I am a parent. So aim your idiotic assumptions elsewhere.

One factor I did overlook was the car thing. Where I live (Australia) you can't drive unsupervised until you're 18, at which point I'd be fairly satisfied that my kids could make safe decisions (and I would give them all the freedom they need to make those decisions). However, if my teenager was driving around at 16 I might consider putting one of these in the car (not to track the kid, but to monitor if the car has been driven in an unsafe manner). To some extent, I would consider it my responsibility to make sure that my child was not endangering the lives of other people by speeding or otherwise driving recklessly. (which, hopefully, I would do by just teaching them proper road etiquette in the first place)

Tim is spot on. If you forced your kid to carry this thing around with them wherever they go, it would totally undermine any trust between you and them. Trust is one of the most vital elements in a parent/child relationship. Without it, you have next to nothing.

[Pam @ Jun 11th 2006 12:17AM]

Most of america has teenagers on the road on their own at age 16. most boys who drive at that age think a car is a toy and not a tool. girls are not as bad but almost!

I do believe that keeping track of the kids while they are in 2 tons of steal, electronics, rubber plastic and glass is a good thing.

[Ioakim @ Jun 11th 2006 2:12AM]

Very interesting discussion. Typically I avoid comments for issues that have many angles to consider and involve such serious considerations, given that anything that can be distilled into the space of a few sentences is likely to be glib by definition.
However, I have Ph.D. in research psychology (area focus child development) and have taught courses relating research on parenting practices and their effects at the university level. I have also conducted studies on the topic myself. I am always a bit amused by pronouncements people make on these topics that are based more on pop psychology and gut reactions, ignoring the VAST amounts of empirical evidence out their. Having said that, some of your were on point. Briefly, here are a few key points from the research that reflect issues raised by this gps tracking device

1) Researchers (Like Stattin and Kerr, 2000) make it clear that the best parental monitoring (as evaluated by effects on things like adolescent academic performance, delinquency, etc..) is the kind based on long-standing, pre-exisitng foundations of strong parent-adoelscent communication and that the best predictor of how much a parent knows is how much an adolescent is willing to volunatarily disclose. So I agree with many of the posts that parents that have good communication and have established a good relationship and trust, are going to be ahead of the game and will likely NOT need such a device and that such a device might in fact poison the relationship, HOWEVER...

2) Too many of you are assuming that all the effects on adolescents and their development and outcomes is a top to bottom parent driven process. It is not. Many key individual differences that predict negative adolescent outcomes are the consequence of factors beyond parental practices, such as non-shared environments, genes and most importantly, peer groups (see work by Scarr, Plomin, Harris). In fact, by the time adolescents are in high school, the influence of peer groups on several markers of delinquency and anti-social influence is greater than that of parents. A child can be the recipient of great parenting and still be liable to engage in destructive, antisocial behaviors

2) SO, if you have a child already at-risk and who has shown behaviors that spell trouble, you as a parent have the right, responsibility and ethical duty to do ALL you can to make sure that child avoids any life-altering mistakes. You have that obligation because that is your child and your legal and moral responsibility, not to mention the harm a delinquent child can visit upon others. If that includes sticking a gps device on a car, that's a small price to pay in terms of invasion of privacy if it means preventing some disaster. I can't stand it when I hear parents trying to act more like their kids' friends than their legal guardians. Your relationship with your child is not horizontal in status and should not be. Having free access to their rooms, checking and verifying their locations, checking their grades, making sure their do their homework, etc..etc is all perfectly reasonable if parents believe and have evidence to suggest that their children are headed for trouble.

--Ioakim

[Blakamin @ Jun 11th 2006 7:51PM]

Stuff the kid-tracking thing, I want one so I can take my garmin of my Ducati... The data is handy for defending speeding cases! (in NZ anyway)

[Joel @ Jun 12th 2006 5:48AM]

Umm... it NEEDS a battery source.
Anyone know of any small battery sources which would last a good deal. Like the promised 2 weeks of logging?

[Magallanes @ Jun 12th 2006 8:06PM]

IMHO for child can be not only good, also worthy. Security is more important that freedom (for their ages). But for teen it's different..

[Tim @ Jun 13th 2006 6:56AM]

For power maybe you could use NiMH batteries, some sort of modified car charger and a lead to the car's brake light wire. Tuck the unit inside the quarter panel in the car's trunk. Whenever the brake is pressed, the batteries get charged. Swap SD cards periodicly and check the batteries. Read off on Google Earth where your car has been and what it has been doing. Download and clean off the SD card and you are ready for another cycle.

[Java Junky @ Jun 13th 2006 9:45AM]

Well, you all can fret and discuss the implications of tracking kids. I am much more interested in using it on a Dog collar to track my show dogs in the event of theft. I paid $50 to have a microchip implanted in my dog (don't freak, this is pretty standard these days) but it's only good if the dog is taken to a vet or shelter and they have the scanner and access to the
database. With a GPS unit, I could actually see where the dog is and what s/he is doing and find it post haste in the event of a loss.

I could also see ranchers getting a good use for this technology for their cattle or their prized stud stallion, etc. Or throw one in with that vital organ being transported from one city to another? They probably already have those, but given the price tag of $140 and it's small size, this seems like a bargain to me.

[Pam @ Jun 25th 2006 10:47AM]

I like the idea of putting on the dog's harness/collar. I too have the microchip for him. and you are right. I don't have a show dog but I have a semi aggressive full breed blue heeler. he is the best dog I have ever had! if you come to my house and try to get in you will be "eaten". he never goes anywhere cause he is a working dog and it is not in his nature to give up his post. but if someone were to take him from our home, I would like to know where he was taken to.

[bar @ Aug 14th 2008 8:40AM]

Gregor: I personaly use http://www.trekinu.com
I think the photos you upload gets more album look, and they have easy falsh tool to work with.