Bluetooth-Assisted Guardian App Is a Parent's Virtual Babysitter

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By Meg Wagner2013-10-08 02:56:17 UTC

Johnny Fong knows the panic that ensues when a parent loses a child in a crowd. When the Taiwanese developer briefly lost his son in a busy shopping mall, he decided there had to be a smarter way to keep parents connected to their children.

That's when he teamed up with two other entrepreneurs to establish tech startup BeLuvv, and its app Guardian, which helps parents monitor their wandering kids, BeLuvv co-founder Oni Chen told Mashable.

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"We started to think, 'Why don't we put some of our efforts into a product that can guard our families?'" Chen said.

The Guardian app works with a bluetooth-enabled radio chip that's embedded into a small, wearable tag. The device can be worn as bracelet, necklace or a buckle attached to your child's clothing.

Guardian is like a second set of eyes for parents. When your child is in bluetooth range, Guardian keeps track of his or her whereabouts, and notifies you if he or she approaches the tracking boundary.

The app is also designed to create a network of parents that grows stronger as more people join. Since every copy of the Guardian app can connect to central servers, when your child leaves your phone's range, the cloud-based system triggers a network search. What's more, you'll get an alert with your child's location if he or she is close to another person with the Guardian app.

BeLuvv is also running a campaign to give Guardian to families in need. For every two Guardians you buy, BeLuvv will donate one.

Since around 8 million children go missing every year, the company's goal is to sell 16 million units, so it can donate 8 million to needy parents and children, Chen said: "We believe that the more we sell, the more good we should do for society."

Guardian is now on pre-order for $24.95. BeLuvv expects to start shipping by the end of November.

Homepage image: BeLuvv

Topics: apps, Apps and Software, Children, Family & Parenting, Gadgets, Lifestyle, Newsy, parenting, parents