Don’t Make Me Come Over There

Someone was asking me yesterday what’s so cool about ‘Bluetooth’ (I have an organiser with Bluetooth built in) – and I think I’ve found one of the coolest applications yet.
Bluetooth is a way for electronic devices to communicate over short distances via radio. It’s somewhere between Infrared and ‘Wireless’ for usefulness. (Where’s my Bluetooth TV remote control, America? Japan? Taiwan? Huh? Anyone?) You can get Bluetooth mobile phones and computer mouses, for example, and not have any wires connecting them to other things.
So some clever Danish folk are installing Bluetooth tracking devices for kids in the Aalborg Zoo. The kids wear a little transmitter and are sent on their way. When little Johnny goes near an exit, an alarm goes off. If mum and dad want to find him, they use their mobile phones. “Ja; Johnny is tormenting the penguins, no? More snaps, dear?”
Yes, there’s a problem with swapping devices with other kids or monkeys, but they’re working on that.
I’m impressed by the various applications this could be extended to, in shopping centers and sporting arenas, for example, for tracking lost littlies.
… and sunglasses. And car keys.