ECE.17R – Private Eye

• Marc Karam
• Basith Syed
• Enrique Tinoco Sosa

Ensuring the safety of our children and elderly is of utmost importance in our society. However, existing tracking devices such as smartwatches are often bulky, difficult to operate, require frequent charging, and need a WiFi/cellular connection, making them inconvenient to use as trackers. To address these issues, our team is developing a GPS-tracking button that uses velcro to adhere to clothing. It is affordable, user-friendly, and has a discreet design suitable for daily wear without drawing attention.

Our button has a long battery life, lasting an average of 12 hours, and has a wide range of coverage up to 10 miles, achieved through the addition of Lora (Long-Range Radio Communication). Users can easily track their loved ones’ location through an iOS web app, ensuring their safety. By addressing the range limitations of WiFi and Bluetooth, our team hopes to provide a valuable and accessible solution for parents, caregivers, and individuals who want to track their pets or other assets.

Our aim is to provide an effective, affordable, and user-friendly tracking solution, ultimately contributing to the safety and security of our community. Success will be measured by the affordability of the tracker, the overall user experience, and user satisfaction. Currently our tracker aims to save users money by not requiring an additional GSM/WiFi plan, which on average costs $30 a month, and our components only add up to $60 compared to some trackers which can cost upwards of $700.

So far, our results have been promising. We have been able to obtain GPS locations even indoors when the GPS module has acquired a fix. Additionally, our tests using Lora resulted in the transmission of coordinates up to 4 miles, which can be improved by using a better antenna. And our battery has lasted 12 hours consistently, which can improve significantly when we implement a sleep mode and delay the transmission of the coordinates to every 30 seconds.