IndieGoGo: Meet the HereO, First GPS Watch Aimed at Keeping Your Kids Safer

As a parent myself I know we all want our kids to be safe as much as possible. We still want to give our little ones a little freedom to explorer their surroundings while still being able to relax a little at the same time. There are a number of apps and gadgets one can use to that, including some that are available from your carrier. So long as your child has a phone. Let’s face it though, you aren’t going to hand over a Galaxy S5 to your 3 year old son so you can keep tabs on him at the park. A IndieGoGo funding campaign is currently underway called hereO that is looking to help out parents and children in the safety.

The hereO is a kid friendly designed GPS watch that tracks your child’s movements and allows you to pinpoint their location right on your device.

Some of the great features:

• Place’s Notification: You can also set up zones to alert you when your child enters or leaves specific areas. This is great for children just starting school.
• Panic Alert: When in need the hereO will send out an alert to all family members on the hereO list.
• Tamper Alert: If the watch gets removed for any reason an emergency alert will be sent to all family members with the watches location.
• History: Back track through the watches location history to see where they have been throughout the day.
• Directions: Get directions from your current location to the location of the hereO.

The hereO app is free and doesn’t just sync with the hereO watch. It will cross sync with your entire family too. Letting you keep an eye on them too. You can see similar info as you would with the watch, but with a few more functions like broadcasting messages to the whole family, make calls and send/receive directions to current family members locations.

The GPS Watch has a 24 to 72 hour battery life, is water resistant and includes a SIM card. It connects to GPS and cell triangulation for location information, then uses the cell network to transmit the coordinates to the hereO app on your phone.

The hereO will require a month subscription in order to have the GPS up and running, but at $5 a month it is hardly worth complaining about. We pay more for Netflix.

The IndieGoGo project is well underway with just 23 days left. The hereO’s goal is $100,000 and they are just about to hit $70,000. The early Bird special on this campaign will set you back $99, which is a $50 saving from what these will retail for and you get 6 months of service for free. There are still a number of Early Bird Specials left. In typical fashion, you can help them reach their goals for a smaller price tag.

While I think I am a pretty good dad and keep a very close eye on my son when we are out and about, I still have felt that slight panic moment when he has managed to escape my field of view for a few seconds. The hereO wouldn’t help me in those 5 second moments, but it certainly gives you a back-up plan.

If you want to support the project, which is said to launch regardless of the goal being reached or not, then take a click over to the hereO IndieGoGo campaign page.