Have in mind that LinkIt ONE has been available only for a couple of quarters, and so far MediaTek and its partners managed to get some innovative projects to market.

One of these projects comes from Athentek, a start-up that focuses on security applications with smart location technologies. The company is behind the LinkIt ONE based solution called Circo, and this is a smart tracking wearable device for children.

The basic idea is rather simple, the Circo device uses most advanced location technology including GPS, AGPS, WiFi, and Cell ID to track your kids. The LinkIt ONE device enables connection to a cloud based application that can help you locate this device, and your offspring. The battery charge lasts a few days, the device measures 37x32x11 mm and weighs only 18 grams. It uses a MediaTek MT2502A with added MT5931 (802.11n platform 2.4GHz) + MT3332 (Multi-GNSS receiver ) chips for connectivity.

The device supports GSM 900/1800/850/1900 frequencies, GPS, AGPS, WiFI Cell ID and comes with a 320 mAh battery. Circo device is small enough so the children can wear it around neck, potentially even as bracelet. You can also put the device in kid's pockets or a school bag.

The positioning data is sent to a secure could and the data is available via a smartphone app. The app supports a social chat room, activity history, geo fencing and real-time positioning.

We don't know the price of the device, as it will take a few more month to polish and get to market, but it sounds like a good idea. One thing that comes to mind - a lot of kids have mobile phones and that the you can have a similar functionality with a mobile phone. The downside of using phones to track kids is that children can drain the battery really fast, and with a dead battery you won't be able to track them. Since the location is stored in a secure cloud, nasty people should not be able to access the tracking data. 

We would like to see a similar device inside our language, as frequent travellers usually experience lost luggage at one time or another. Maybe we just gave Athentek a potential idea how to grow their business horizontally, as we can see a lot of interest if the price is right. We will keep our eyes on this interesting device.