Hasta La Gadget!

It is rather alarming to learn that according to the CDC, the leading cause of death for teenagers in the US happen to be motor vehicle accidents. It is said that on a per-mile basis, drivers who are aged from 16 to 19 have three times more propensity to be involved in a fatal crash compared to those who are aged 20 and higher. Fatal accidents are one thing, there are also tens of thousands who are injured every year in vehicle accidents. While parents and driving schools do all they can to prepare their teen drivers to drive safely, equipping them with education and driving tips, they will still need to let their once little ones “fly”, which is why a device like the eZoom makes perfect sense – it allows parents to keep tabs on teen drivers using advanced GPS technology.

The eZoom happens to be a lightweight, multi-use GPS tracker complete with a compact, waterproof design. You can clip it to a keychain, or have it permanently installed in a vehicle for real-time tracking, location history and speed monitoring. Apart from that, parents too, are able to establish speed limits for their teen driver, in addition to receiving email and text message alerts each time the limit is exceeded. Parents will also be able to breathe easier when they receive alerts as teens arrive at and leave different destinations. Alternatively, parents can remotely arm a stationary vehicle with the mobile app, receiving notifications if the car moves – so that they know whether their kids have snuck out or not.

Teen drivers can can also do their bit by checking in so that their parents know each time they have arrived safely with but a single press of a button that will send a location alert. The eZoom will play nice with an Apple, Android or BlackBerry app or online dashboard, letting parents view their teen driver’s location in real time thanks to advanced assisted-GPS tracking, while receiving turn-by-turn directions that are accurate to within 15 yards. Not only that, to prevent any Hansel & Gretel incidences down the road, the eZoom will also come with a breadcrumb trail which provides vehicle location history.

Press Release
[ eZoom help parents keep tabs on their kids copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Google‘s new Nexus 7 tablet is garnering a fair bit of complaints from users who are reportedly having problems using GPS navigation with the recently launched slate. Complaints are lighting up forums across the Internet, including over on Google’s own product forums, all of them sharing the same story: GPS works fine for X amount […]

If you’re piloting a crazy homebrew quadracopter, sooner or later you’re going to want to be able to pilot your UAV beyond where you can see it. And for more precise tracking, your ordinary GPS receiver’s five-meter accuracy just ain’t gonna cut it. A couple of enterprising engineers have successfully Kickstarted a new receiver called the Piksi, which they claim is accurate down to just a few centimeters.

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Most GPS is a relatively imprecise tool, honing in on your location to within around a few meters, but new Kickstarter project Piksi aims to provide accuracy within a single centimeter, via a new GPS receiver that uses Real Time Kinetics (RTK) it’s trying to fund via Kicksarter. The Piksi combines open source software and hardware to give UAV hobbyists and others access to the advanced RTK tech at a fraction of the price you’d normally find.

The price still isn’t exactly bargain basement at $500 for one of the first production devices, and that gets you only one Piksi unit; because of how RTK works, you’ll need two to get the super-accurate, 1-centimeter resolution location tracking working, which means the $900 level is where you’ll have to start if you’re after the hyper-specific positioning. Compared to what else is out there, however, that’s still very affordable indeed.

And the Piksi isn’t just for those building a home drone fleet; it could come in handy for rocketry hobbyists, aerial photography geotagging, building autonomous robot lawnmowers and more. As with most open source hardware aimed at the DIY engineering community, the limits of how Piksi can be used basically come to down to an individual’s imagination.

The specific details of how RTK works to provide such heightened accuracy are extremely geeky, but the team behind PIksi does a good job of providing an explanation over on their project page, which I wouldn’t do justice by trying to repeat here. Suffice it to say, they use science, and that science is very smart.

PIksi is the product of Swift Navigation, a San Francisco-based startup that consists of Colin Beighley and Fergus Noble, two engineers who previously developed a commercial RTK GPS system for a company called Joby Energy. Noble has an MSc in Physics from the University of Cambridge, and Beighley has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Cruz. The two have been working with GPS or the past few years, but founded Swift Navigation in 2012 to turn that work into their own company.

The Piksi has already exceeded its $14,000 goal, so it’s getting made whether you back it or not (in time for a September 2013 delivery, too), but if you’re a backyard hardware hacker who craves extreme precision, there’s still time to get on board.

Google’s answer to competing smart mobile brands’ device location services has arisen in the form of “Android Device Manager.” This system will allow you to remotely locate you device – directly ping-able with Google Maps. It also lets you set the device’s Ringer off so you can find the machine easily or wipe the device […]