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Footwear in step with the times as it gets GPS

"If the kids push the button for fun, their mom will have to pay for it."

Isaac Daniel, engineer and inventor of GPS shoes

Isaac Daniel hopes the next time someone wears his sneakers, the footwear may prove to be life saving.

The 38-year-old engineer and one-time UN scientific analyst has developed a line of running shoes with a tiny Global Positioning System (GPS) chip that can locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button.

Daniel said the US$350 sneakers, which he believes can help save children in trouble or even Alzheimer patients, will hit stores in May or June with more than 30,000 orders already pouring in from retailers worldwide.

About 2,000 people who have placed orders online are expected to receive the shoes next month.

A children's line is due out this fall.

Military and healthcare officials in several countries have expressed interest in the product.

Daniel said he got the idea for the GPS shoes after his son in 2002 was mistakenly listed as missing from school.

"After that incident I began doing research on missing children and I found that this happens mainly with children ages eight, nine, 10 and teens," the Miami-based Daniel said. "I just kept going with the research until I found a solution."

The solution was a line of men's and women's sneakers in 19 color combinations outfitted with a GPS chip that communicates with four international satellites.

In the event of trouble, the wearer can activate the chip by pressing a button on the sneaker for at least six seconds. The emergency signal is then transmitted to a 24-hour monitoring service that costs US$20 dollars a month.

Daniel said once the alarm is raised the monitoring service notifies authorities.

He said in the event of a missing child or Alzheimer patient, a parent or caregiver can call the monitoring service which can activate the GPS remotely to pinpoint the whereabouts of the wearer.

"When you press the button it has to be an emergency because we will call to verify that something is wrong and then we'll send law enforcement," Daniel said. "So people will have to realize how seriously we take that."

He said parents will have to teach their children not to activate the GPS button for fun just as they drill into them the importance of calling the police only in an emergency.

"If the kids push the button for fun, their mom will have to pay for it," Daniel said.

Next on his agenda, he said, is a "cellphone shoe" and a "game shoe."
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