New device to track movement of students in schools

Kolkata: A new device using technology like WiFi, Bluetooth beacons and GPS that can track the movement of students to ensure their safety within their school campuses was presented before a select group of private school principals in the city.

The device can be worn by students as standard identity cards and the data can be sent to the nearest gateway for detecting the movement, device manufacturer Future Netwings Solutions Pvt Ltd chief executive officer Jaideep Chakrabarti claimed.

Introducing such a device is important in the wake of reports of some incidents involving students within the school campuses in the city and elsewhere, he said at the demonstration before the school principals last night.

About the device he said, "If a student has unusal movement in a secluded area, alerts are generated immediately and cameras are activated.

Unlike CCTV-based surveillance with hours of video footage but no real information, the solution Hipla School provides real time, actionable intelligence and reports."

The gateways, deployed across the campus of any school in a network of Bluetooth Beacons, WiFi and GPS, will receive data from IT cards and transmit the same to the Cloud, which in turn would trigger alerts, notifications or functions, he said. The device has already been put to succcessful use in some educational institutions in the US as pilot, Chakrabarti said.