New wearable device shares your location and environment

Now that our daughter is old enough to have her own family, she’s delighted to tell us about all the tricks she played on us when she was a teenager.

We would drop her off at the local shopping mall where she said she would spend the evening with her friends. But in fact, they slipped out the back door where boys were waiting to take them to some unknown house party.

I’m betting that her daughters will all have the Lotus by Seam as one of their required fashion accessories.

Developed by Seam Technic, the Lotus is a small wearable device that lets parents and friends keep track of loved ones by recording and transmitting a variety of environmental information including GPS location , photos and audio.

At home, her mother could use a mobile app to see what she sees and hear what she hears. And if any difficulties would arise, she could make a hands-free phone call while sharing her location.

The Seam system lets users record audio and still images captured from two button-style recorders, one facing to the front, the other with a rear view.

Users can share the data and images privately with up to five friends our guardians. Or, they can have the system trigger a call to an emergency phone number while still capturing GPS location data. The data logs are stored in the cloud for up to three months while the service is in its launch stage.

As a parent, I was especially attracted by the safety element of the Seam system. But Seam founder and CEO Drew Henson said he created the system primarily to help his family members feel more connected to him while he was away from home traveling the world. “It’s a seamless way to feel connected, social and safe,” he said.

The Lotus by Seam is scheduled to launch a funding campaign on Kickstarter on Nov. 1. The Lotus recording devices are expected to see for $119 but early supporters will be able to reserve them on Kickstarter for up to 40% less.

The Seam apps are available now for free in the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. More details are available on the Seam Technic website and @Seam_technic on Twitter.

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Written by Ric Manning

Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.