With the famous voice to users “recalculating”  GPS is everywhere. Now market introduces the GPS to track down Alzheimer’s patients who lose their way back home or even for the sake of Sex workers’ safety.

Today FoxNew published a very interesting story about GPS shoes.

Read the story from  the source here.

The first batch of 3,000 shoes with integrated GPS devices  – to help track down dementia-suffering seniors who wander off and get lost — just shipped from manufacturer GTX Corp. to the footwear firm Aetrex, two years after plans were announced to develop the product.

The company’s first shoes — dreamed up back in 2002 following the Elizabeth Smart case — were intended to locate missing children. And safety is the driving force today behind the company’s newest GPS-enabled shoe. According to AFP, The shoes will sell at around $300 a pair and buyers will be able to set up a monitoring service to locate “wandering” seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

The system is implanted in the heel of an otherwise normal shoe, and lets caregivers or family members monitor the wearer and even set up alerts if a person strays outside of a predefined area.

The shoes were certified by the Federal Communications Commission this year. GTX believes the market has great potential, given the soaring costs of Alzheimer’s.

“This is a significant milestone for both companies and while the $604 billion worldwide cost of dementia has become and will continue to be a significant fiscal challenge, the under $300 GPS enabled shoes will ease the enormous physical and emotional burden borne by Alzheimer’s victims, caregivers and their geographically distant family members,” said Patrick Bertagna, chief executive of GTX Corp.

Health professionals say the new GPS shoes could be a real boon for the more than five million Americans who suffer from the disease, according to AFP. Andrew Carle, a professor at George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services, said the shoes may even save lives.

“It’s especially important for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s who are at the highest risk,” Carle told AFP.

“They might be living in their home but they’re confused. They go for a walk and they can get lost for days.”

But well before GTX untied its newest product, another manufacturer strode into the picture with a decidedly different demographic — prostitutes.

“Our first shoe, a demo version of the Platform 001 sandal, was inspired by the prostitutes of ancient Greece and Rome, who enticed clients with their flutes and sandals that left ‘follow me’ footprints in the earth,” explains the website for The Aphrodite Project.

“Our contemporary sandals combine these poetic images from antiquity with promotional and safety features designed to meet the needs of today’s sex workers.”

The Aphrodite Project’s sandals are designed to protect with a piercing siren to scare off threatening muggers or attackers and a GPS-powered system that can send warnings to police.

Everyday we see developing the new Apps, today Reuters published an interesting story about a new app to reduce stress with slow breathing.

The story was developed by Natasha Baker.

(Reuters) – Want to reduce stress and improve mental focus? A new app that promotes slow breathing may help.

Called MyCalmBeat, the app uses a heart rate monitor that attaches to the ear to detect a person’s optimal breathing rate, or resonant frequency, which is unique to each person.

At this breathing rate, the company says the user can increase the variability of their heart rate to lower stress levels.

“People don’t realize the profound impact that slow breathing can have until they actually sit down and do it for 10 minutes and then they feel completely different,” said Savannah DeVarney, vice president of product marketing for MyBrainSolutions, the creators of the app.

After finding their ideal breathing rate, animated exercises show users how to breathe at that rate, while the heart monitor provides feedback about the variability of their heart rate.

“Normally people think of 65 beats per minute as a good resting heart rate. But we’re not necessarily looking at heart rate — we’re looking at the degree to which the space between consecutive heart beats varies,” DeVarney explained.

When a person is stressed their heart rate becomes consistent and variability is minimized. But when relaxed, variability is maximized, slowing down as you breathe out and speeding up as you breathe in.

“We know that for most people their resonant frequency is between 7.5 and 4.5 breaths per minute. The software maps your heart rate variability through each of those rates to find the breathing rate where it becomes maximized,” said DeVarney.

This frequency remains consistent throughout adult life, and usually only varies during childhood or pregnancy.

DeVarney said the company collaborated with Dr Richard Gevirtz, a professor at the Alliant International University in San Diego, California, who conducts research in heart rate variability.

She said in people who meditate for hours increased heart rate variability is one of the characteristics of being in a highly relaxed state.

“Meditators will find their resonant frequency naturally through trial and error, so we know that there’s something in that.”

Other biofeedback-based heart rate monitor apps include Instant Heart Rate which uses the iPhone’s camera to detect a user’s heart rate, rather than an external ear clip.

The company recommends training ten minutes a day, three times a week.

The app is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.