The $5 Lineable Bracelet Tracks Your Kids When They Wander Away

The Lineable, the unfortunately named tracking bracelet for kids, aims to make it easier for parents to keep tabs on their little ones thanks to the magic of beacons. Essentially a wearable iOS-compatible beacon, the device notifies you when your child is too far away and it allows other iPhones to become a sort of ad hoc GPS system that can track your little one through the dark, scary woods (provided he or she is also surrounded by Lineable users.)

Created by Tyler Moon, a former Samsung developer, the Beacon and Bluetooth 4.0 compatible device that will cost a mere $5. To use it parents will slap it on their wee ones. When the wee ones leave the Beacon tracking area, the parents get a notification. Then, when the baby is too far from home, other Lineable users get notifications when the kid is near. This mesh network obviously depends on the popularity of the product, but I could see it being useful in bigger schools or playgrounds. The bracelet battery lasts a year and, interestingly, it features a patent-pending method to engage the battery when you’re ready to use the device, thereby preventing run-down while in storage.

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