Cool GPS Watch hereO Will Keep Your Kids Safe

Keeping track of children is easier said than done. One minute they are standing by your side and the next they have disappeared into some remote abyss.

Finally, a “hereO” has come along to help parents keep track of their children, with efficiency.

The hereO GPS watch is a stylish, smart and compact device worn by children, which uses GPS and SIM card to allow parents to remotely locate their children via a smartphone application.

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Smart tracking designed for kids

hereO, which has already surpassed its $100,000 crowdfunding goal on Indiegogo,  was designed  in 2011 for children aged 3 to 8 years old.

If you believe COO and co-founder Alon Gladstone, kids really like that their parents know where they are at all times. “When we gave the watch to our own children they thought it was amazing that the device lets their parents know where they are all the time,” Gladstone tells NoCamels.

Whether children truly like being “tracked” or not, the watch’s colorful appearance, durable plastic and waterproof design definitely make it a plus for both parents and children.

Using the hereO app, parents can create a list of trackers, like the child’s family members – parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and even babysitters. Anyone on the list can track the location of the little ones, and the app sends out alerts when the child leaves or enters a certain location, like their school or home. Additionally, the app informs the family if the watch is removed from the child’s wrist.

Special emergency alerts are tailored to the family’s needs, broadcasting the child’s exact whereabouts, and allowing parents to send messages to other family members to provide the child with a tight-knit safety net.

Indoor tracking

The hereO watch also allows children to send out their own distress signals using a ‘panic button’ on the outer edge of the watch, immediately informing their family members that they are in danger. The developers of the watch insist that the distress button is ‘hidden’ on the edge of the watch to discourage false alarms, even during the roughest of play.

The developers of the hereO watch have even taken the limitations of GPS technology into account, creating space for the insertion of a cellular SIM card that can track the child’s location even in places where GPS is not available, like some indoor spaces. The SIM card then sends signals to the local phone carrier, transferring the child’s location directly to the parents’ mobile phones.

But the hereO watch is not alone in the GPS watch market, with major competitors like AT&T’s ‘FiLIP’. But hereO appears to be smaller and lighter and be specifically tailored to young kids.

Meeting their goal on Indigogo

hereO is currently being sold via the company’s Indiegogo campaign where the watch and a six-month subscription to SIM card triangulation plan are on sale for $99, with plans to raise the price to $149 price after the campaign. With eight days left in the campaign, hereO has already raised $126,000.

Meanwhile, the free hereO application is set to hit the Apple App Store this month and will be made available to Android users by June.

Eventually, the startup’s founders hope to integrate the safety technology in big entertainment venues like theme parks and resorts, allowing parents to rent the device to keep track of their kids in particularly crowded (and nerve-wrecking) locations.

Photos: hereO