Know Where jacket phones home with GPS data

Sure, there are already jackets designed to include integrated controls for your audio player, cellphone and other devices. And some of them even look better than the Know Where jacket from Germany's Interactive Wear (which, face it, isn't exactly hard). But how many of them have an integrated GPS unit that can phone home with realtime tracking data? We assume the point of including the epaulet-based GPS unit in the jacket is either to allow an employer or parent to track the jacket's wearer without forcing her to carry a separate GPS device. However, we can't help but think that once the wearer knows he's being tracked, he may just "forget" the jacket somewhere, even if that means giving up that swanky integrated phone and MP3 player.

[Via The Raw Feed]

[errol @ Mar 8th 2006 6:09PM]

nice model engadget :)

[popeye @ Mar 8th 2006 6:11PM]

Will teh thing tell me where she^ is???

[bloodomen13 @ Mar 8th 2006 7:00PM]

Why does the thing have to look like a Members Only jacket?

[Crumsberry @ Mar 8th 2006 7:02PM]

This could be a breakthrough for ski-patroll and other such outfits that need to keep track of someone that cna possibly get lost or hurt. Maybe even a system that tells if a unit is still for an abnormal period of time during certain parts of the day or something.

[TIMMAH! @ Mar 8th 2006 7:10PM]

Well this would be useful for a family to be able to keep tabs on a family member who might have Alzheimer's. (Although it supposes that they would know to put on a jacket before wandering outside.)

[Dan @ Mar 8th 2006 9:09PM]

Definetly a good thing for young kids who have to walk back and fourth to school I'm thinking 10-15 years old.

Also as mentioned above great for disabled people, who need to have "tabs" kept on them for their own safety.

[iamsoinsane @ Mar 8th 2006 9:29PM]

sweet... next time someone steals your jacket....
dun dun dunnnnn.

[Steve Jobs @ Mar 8th 2006 9:33PM]

hi, i'm a troll. spam me please: [e-mail]

[charlie @ Mar 8th 2006 11:04PM]

That would be nice for me cause I forget my jacket everywhere or it gets stolen a lot. It would be nice to always know where it ended up.

[Brian @ Mar 9th 2006 12:37AM]

#5 - It's called RECCO (www.recco.com) and is already used in some ski, snowboard or backcountry gear (jackets, helmets, boots, etc). Cool tech.

[Gorninator @ Mar 9th 2006 2:30AM]

I'd like to violate her stank hole

[pableu @ Mar 9th 2006 5:28AM]

@RECCO
Recco works passive. So the reflector inside you jacket es very small and cheap and doesn't need an energy source. It just reflects the signal coming from an (active) detector.

[Rudus @ Mar 9th 2006 10:04AM]

This one looks better

http://www.smileproject.com/go/neil.htm

And she wont trouble u during the game.