THE CHALLENGEA Person Is Not a Vehicle
A vehicle tracker bolted to a person does not solve the problem. A device that is worn has to be small enough to keep on, last days off a battery you can hide in a badge or pendant, and get a fix and a connection while it sits close to the body. The events that matter are human ones, a worker who has fallen and not got up, a child who has left the school gate, an elderly parent on the floor, a woman who needs help without unlocking a phone. Each needs a single action that reaches the right people and, where it matters, the ERSS 112 service. The board, the firmware, and the alert path are designed for those moments rather than retrofitting fleet hardware.
One layer of the full Telematics and GPS Tracking platform, working closely with Personal Safety Tracker.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Wearable Trackers Across People Use Cases
Lone Worker and Employee Safety Devices
A badge or belt-clip unit for workers who operate alone, on a site, a tower, a remote yard, or a night shift. It carries a man-down timer, no-motion detection, a panic button, and a check-in prompt, escalating to a supervisor and, where enabled, ERSS 112 when a worker stops responding.
Student and School Tracking
A compact tracker for school bags or ID cards that shares live location with parents and the school, raises an alert when a child leaves a safe zone such as the school or home, and gives the child a one-press SOS. It pairs cleanly with school bus and student tracking deployments.
Elderly and Patient Tracking
A pendant or wrist device tuned for the two events families fear most, a fall at home and wandering. Accelerometer fall detection raises help to a known location, and safe-zone geofences flag a dementia patient who leaves a care boundary.
SOS and Panic Button Systems
A single hardware button wired to a wake interrupt so one press fires even from deep standby. The event fans out in parallel to trusted contacts and the ERSS 112 flow with live location attached, then the device raises its reporting cadence so a responder follows a live track.
Wearable Tracker Firmware and PCB Design
The compact low-power PCB is laid out around an MCU, a GNSS receiver, a cellular or NB-IoT modem, and an accelerometer, with firmware that runs the duty cycle, the panic and man-down logic, and the reporting profile. An existing form factor can be supplied, or the design can start from a blank board.
Companion App and Location Backend
A supervisor console or carer app to see live position, manage safe zones, acknowledge alerts, and review history, on a backend that ingests the device telemetry and runs the geofence and escalation rules server side.
HARDWARE ENGINEERING
The Whole Job Is Fitting It on the Body
A people tracker lives or dies on the board. It has to hold a position fix and a connection while worn against a body that blocks signal, run for days off a cell small enough to hide in a badge, and wake instantly when someone presses the button. A tight PCB layout, a measured power budget, and antenna tuning for the body-worn case address that, so the device disappears into the day until it is needed.
Compact Low-Power PCB
A dense board around a low-power MCU, a GNSS receiver, a cellular or NB-IoT modem, and an on-board accelerometer, laid out in Altium for a small enclosure such as a badge, pendant, wrist, or keyfob.
Duty Cycle and Battery
The device stays in deep standby with periodic updates and motion or button wake, ramping the cadence only during an active SOS or shift, so a small cell still lasts days instead of a charge every night.
Body-Worn Antenna and Fix
The GNSS and cellular antennas are placed and tuned for a device worn close to the body, which absorbs and detunes signal, so it still gets a usable fix and connection where a careless layout would not.
SAFETY LOGIC
From Sensor Event to the Right Responder
Man-Down and Fall Detection
The accelerometer firmware watches for an impact followed by stillness, plus a no-motion timeout and orientation check for man-down. A cancel countdown with a buzzer lets a worker who is fine clear it, so only a genuine event escalates.
One-Press SOS and Panic
A hardware button on a wake interrupt fires even from deep standby. The event fans out in parallel to your escalation chain and, where enabled, the ERSS 112 flow, so the wearer never relies on a single channel at the worst moment.
Geofencing and Check-In
Safe-zone geofences raise an alert when a student, patient, or worker crosses a boundary, and scheduled check-in prompts catch a lone worker who has gone quiet, even when no button was ever pressed.
WHO IT PROTECTS
One Platform, Several People to Keep Safe
Lone and Remote Workers
Site staff, field engineers, security guards, and night-shift workers carry a badge with man-down, panic, and check-in so a fall or incident reaches a supervisor and 112 even when nobody is nearby.
Students and Children
A bag or ID-card tracker gives parents and the school live location, raises an alert when a child leaves a safe zone, and gives the child a one-press SOS for the walk to and from school.
Elderly and Patients
A pendant or wrist device covers a fall at home and wandering with fall detection and safe-zone alerts, sending help to a known location instead of a vague last-known guess.
FAQ
Common Questions
What is the difference between a people tracker and a vehicle tracker at the board level?
A people tracker has to be small and worn, so the constraint is fitting GNSS, a cellular or NB-IoT radio, and a motion sensor onto a board that survives off a small battery for days. A vehicle unit runs off the vehicle supply and has room to spare. The people side is designed around a compact low-power PCB with body-worn antenna placement, a deep standby duty cycle, and a single hardware button wired straight to a wake interrupt.
How does man-down and fall detection avoid firing on every stumble?
The accelerometer firmware looks for a two-part signature, a sharp impact followed by a period of stillness or no orientation change, rather than a single jolt. Lone worker man-down adds a no-motion timeout and an orientation check, and every auto-trigger runs a short cancel countdown with a buzzer so a worker who is fine can clear it. Only an unanswered countdown escalates to an alert.
Can the SOS reach ERSS 112 and not only an internal contact list?
Yes. A panic event can route into the ERSS 112 flow with the live location attached, in parallel with your own escalation chain of supervisors, guards, or family contacts. The wearer is not depending on one channel. The device raises its reporting cadence during an active SOS so a responder follows a live track rather than a stale last-known fix.
Is the wearable hardware included or only the firmware?
Both, plus the cloud and app behind them. Scope runs from the compact low-power PCB and enclosure through the firmware, the panic and man-down logic, the location backend, and the supervisor or carer view. An existing form factor can also be brought in, with firmware written for it. The handover is a product you can certify and ship under your own brand.
How long does a wearable tracker last on a charge?
It depends on the reporting interval and the radio. A badge or pendant that reports periodically and wakes on motion or a button press targets multi-day life, while a higher cadence for active lone worker shifts trades runtime for freshness. The power draw is budgeted against your duty cycle during the build, with the battery and radio chosen to hit your target.
Ready to Build a People Tracking Device?
Share who you need to protect, the form factor, and your battery and certification targets to get a tailored walkthrough of the compact PCB, the man-down and SOS logic, and the path from a press to a responder.
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