Since I started our homecare agency in 2006, I’ve been interested in the technology of aging. Early on, it became apparent that I was a bit ahead of the curve.

In 2008 I was approached by the founder of a GPS locator start up to test drive his product. I was excited to see how it would work because it could have been a game changer for people with memory loss and potential elopement concerns. I  had to hang the item on my purse as it felt awkward to hook on my belt loop. It was too large for a pocket or to clip on my shoe. I clipped on the chunky product and went about my business during the day. (First red flag was that it was too bulky to wear.)

It was iffy at best!

It couldn’t track me in the grocery store, a large office building or even the mall. The computer dashboard was slow to respond. Remember this was 2008 and things were quite different back then! When I reported my observations to the owner, he said that the wearer did need to be near a window or outside for the product to work at its best. He said that they were working on that as well as making the product smaller and lighter.

It was a great idea but the technology wasn’t quite there yet. He contacted me a few years later with the revamped tracker. It was smaller, lighter and now fit on a wristband. It was still large but at least wearable. This was the first wearable I had seen in person. Fitbit wasn’t in the retail stores until 2011.

My first thought was that it was interesting and it was definitely improved but could it track better? The answer was no. The tracking technology was still based on cell towers which required the wearer to be near a window or have some sort of booster inside. He was still a little ahead of his time.

Fast forward to today and we all know that this technology has been refined in Fitbits, Apple watches and many more wearable trackers. These devices are now a part of our everyday life and have become game changers to many people.