People Finders and Object Finders

This section describes two types of finders:

Devices intended for locating people (see below)
Devices intended for locating objects (click here).

People finders

With dementia, a frequent problem is that of wandering coupled with disorientation that prevents an individual from finding their way home. Such wandering can easily occur at night when a person is much more vulnerable to hyperthermia, attack or simply not being found. It can also be problematic at the shops when an individual strays from their carer.

This section describes how to locate people when they're lost outside their home; to prevent people wandering in the first place or to determine their location within a building complex, go to "Wandering detection".

The devices described here are primarily intended for locating children but are equally applicable to adults. They do depend on the individual remembering to wear or carry the device, which for someone with dementia could be a problem.

Examples based on GPS include:

A GPS Personal Locator comprising a bracelet that communicates with a base station. Carers can log on to a Web site for a map that displays the device's whereabouts or they can contact an operator at a call center who will tell them the device's location.
As a variant to (1), a system can set electronic boundaries for the device wearer. If the person wanders, the device alerts a central data bureau, which then sends an alarm to the carer's mobile phone.

GPS devices will be fairly accurate in locating a person but unfortunately do not work well (if at all) inside buildings. A second class of devices do work inside buildings but at the expense of accuracy: these are based on mobile phone technology.

Mobile phone networks have the ability to track a phone’s location and, assuming the individual is carrying the phone, this provides a mechanism to locate them. Again initial offerings are targeted at finding children but clearly it doesn’t matter who’s carrying the mobile phone. Via the web or your own mobile phone, you can determine the location of the individual's phone. On the web, you’re shown a map with a circle showing the range of locations for the phone. On your own phone, you’re given a message that the individual's phone is within a given radius of a certain landmark. Unfortunately, the radius seems to be quite large – around 500 yards depending on various factors although one company did claim an accuracy down to 50 yards.