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GPS shoes (Courtesy of GTX) |
Q13Fox News
Shoes with built-in GPS devices will soon be on sale to help keep track of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and other conditions with similar symptoms.
The manufacturer of the shoes, GTX, said that 3,000 pairs of the shoes have been shipped. They will be sold by Aetrex Worldwide at a price of approximately $300 a pair.
The shoes are expected to help families and care providers locate seniors with dementia who wonder off. Currently, many seniors who suffer from dementia wear bracelets and other such devices outfitted with GPS – but they often reject them.
"It's especially important for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's who are at the highest risk," Andre Carle, a professor and adviser on the project told AFP. “The primary reason is that paranoia is a manifestation of the disease. If you put something on someone with Alzeheimer's that they don't recognize, they remove it.”
The GPS is implanted into the heel of the shoe. Families and caretakers can monitor the wearer’s location and also set up boundaries so that an alert is triggered if the patient travels outside of the predetermined safe area.
