STUCK TO ME

STUCK TO ME TECHNOLOGY

01 / Children
Kidnapped

02 / Children
Missing

03 / Children are
Trafficked

Over 203,900 children are kidnapped each year by a family member. 54% are younger than age six. 58,000 are abducted by strangers.

2300 children are mssing everyday in the United States.

27% of children that go missing are being trafficked.

Product

Current

800,000 children are kidnapped or missing every year. Some children that go missing may be trafficked. There are public service announcements on television and radio advising the community to look for signs that a person may be a trafficked person. The United States has a national human trafficking hotline you can text or call if you see anything.

The Apple Air tag is a tracking device you can place on a person or their belongings. Using an app on your phone you can track that person. The problem with the current solutions is children can disappear like smoke and it is difficult to find them, especially the younger children.

History

Kidnapping for slavery or human trafficking did not start with the African Slave Trade as commonly assumed. Between 1750 BC and 1050 BC, the Greeks used slaves they captured in wars against non-Greek countries. Between 450 BC and 300 BC Athen had nearly 100,000 slaves. In the late First Century BC, Imperial Rome alone had 15% to 25% of the population as slaves. The African slave trade commenced in the 16th century. Europeans and the United States both exchanged goods for slaves. As Americans moved further West, acquiring more land, Indian raids occurred. Young girls were taken to live among the Indians while their family was killed. Cynthia Ann Parker was abducted in 1836. She lived among the Comanches for 24 years and became the wife of the chief.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, an international movement began to abolish slavery in all its forms. Our understanding of and fight against human trafficking have grown out of these movements. Slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world, but human trafficking still occurs in every country. Sadly human trafficking has increased through the years.

Featured

Future Technology

STUCK TO ME will prevent human trafficking and help find kidnapped or missing children. The STUCK TO ME tracker uses the Global Positioning System in order to find anyone kidnapped or missing regardless of their location. STUCK TO ME can be worn three different ways. The first prototype is the nano-sized Freckle which blends with the person’s natural freckles. The glasses will have the tracker built into the style of the day. The last STUCK TO ME prototype will be the nano-piece behind the ear. The freckles and the one behind the ear are the same size as they are nano-trackers. When the decoration on the glasses is pressed it will send an alarm in a 500 foot radius. A notification text will automatically be sent to the parent or guardian. The Freckle and the behind the ear piece also send a notification when pressed. This should make both the child and the parents feel safer.

Breakthroughs

Whether it be the STUCK TO ME Glasses, the STUCK TO ME Freckle or the nano ear tracker, breakthroughs will be needed. For every single STUCK TO ME product we need a GPS enabled nano tracker. This enables parents to track their child wherever they are. The STUCK TO ME reach will encircle the globe ensuring every child can be tracked. The nano-sized STUCK TO ME Freckle and ear tracker will need to be stable enough so no migration can occur. This would guarantee that the STM Freckle would not sink into a pore or a wound.

STUCK TO ME Labs has designed an experiment consisting of nine people. The variable we would use is three different children all age seven, using one of our three STUCK TO ME products. The control group will not wear anything. Then we would use six adults that have no idea what STUCK TO ME is, three male and three female. Each male and female adult would try to detect the tracker on the children. All data collected shows that STUCK TO ME is indistinguishable from normal freckles and from wearing glasses.

Design Process

In the beginning of our design process we had many different ideas. First we wanted to imprint the name of the kid and the parent’s address and phone number on what the children wear. Then we remembered that the kidnappers and human traffickers sometimes make you change clothes. We thought of something like an Air tag and knew it already existed. We also knew an Air tag could be thrown out. We thought of using a GPS tracker in the clothes but again they might change your clothes. We even discussed printing the kid’s and parent’s address and phone number on the skin of the kid but that is painful. It also felt that kind of marking would be wrong. We realized we needed to think super small. At first we used micro but then discovered that nano is even smaller and is being researched. Finally we added GPS to our nano-sized tracker to create STUCK TO ME.

Consequences

STUCK TO ME comes with so many advantages and almost no disadvantages. One of the many advantages is that you will always know where your child is at all times. Another positive advantage STUCK TO ME has to offer is your child's ensured safety. An added value could be that decreasing the number of kidnapped and missing children would also free up law enforcement to solve other crimes. However the strongest advantage is children will not have to experience extended trauma. The only negative aspect is immature kids may press the button without reason.