SIT101: Investigate Details About the Trend or the Technology - IT Assessment Answers

Objectives:

This assignment assesses your knowledge of an emerging IT trend or technology and your ability to present this in an appropriate report format using Microsoft Word.

Tasks:

• Your tutor will provide you with a topic.
• Research the topic. You will need to investigate details about the trend or the technology including:

  • What it is

  • How it works

  • How it is used or will be used in the future

  • The advantages or benefits compared with existing technologies (if any)

  • The disadvantages or potential disadvantages

  You will need to research a number of sources to obtain the relevant information. At least four of these sources should be used for your report. The resources must be credible, current (no earlier than 2013) and available in English from a number of different sources. Do not use Wikipedia, blogs or any form of social media.

• Produce a written article using Microsoft Word. Consider the readers of your report to be first-year students, so do not make your report too technical. The report must be carefully spell checked and proofread. A Table of Contents is not required and paragraphs should not be numbered.

In the wake of technological innovations, it has become a trend to experiment with new devices, tools and applications (Visa 2013). Nowadays, the tools like personal tracking devices have become the trend of lifestyle. Use of personal tracking device has become the norm of technological world. Emerging technologies and global connectivity have given rise to tools like personal tracking devices. To gain more insight about this trend, a discussion of their working and uses will be done. In addition, advantages and disadvantages of using personal tracking device will be also critically assessed.

Personal Tracking Device

Personal tracking device are the small in size gadgets. They are used to keep a track of people from anywhere in the world anytime (Rysten 2009). In other words, they perform three tasks mainly that are locating, monitoring and tracking. By using these kinds of devices, people can have peace of mind about their beloved ones. Personal tracking devices are of different types and applications. Personal tracking devices are going to be billion dollar market in coming years due to their applications and benefits (Personal Tracking to Be the Next Billion Dollar GPS Market 2012, para.2). However, there are several moral or ethical issues also in using personal tracking devices. For example, if the target to be tracked is not aware about these devices, it presents both ethical and moral issues.

Process

The personal tracking devices work in an easy manner. People can keep them in their purse or backpack to keep a tracking of their employees, family members or anyone they want to watch. They generally work in motion. Alerts are also sends within every 2 minutes. Their location can be tracked by using Google maps via tablets, computer and smart phones. It shows that if technology is doing its best to help out people. It is so, as for the personal tracking devices, safety is the key. In the market, there are different varieties or types of devices available to use for the safety of people.

Uses of Personal Tracking Devices

Personal tracking devices are used for different kinds of people. For example, there is personal tracking device like GPS Children Tracker for children. By using these kinds of devices, parents can keep a watch of their children whenever they go outside. They alert within every 2 minutes on the Smart phone. In addition, these devices also help in sending information about the real time when the coverage is out of zone. GPS children tracker is built in a way to fit in the pocket of children especially with elementary school age. These children are tracked when they go or return from schools, after school activities, staying with caregiver or at friend’s home. These devices are designed to locate or monitor the children anytime (Visa 2013). Hence, it is easy for the parents or family members to keep a watch over the activities of their children if they may not be supervised by themselves.

[caption id="attachment_2265" align="aligncenter" width="552"] Figure 1.1: GPS Children Tracker (PocketFinder Personal Outdoor GPS Trackers 2015).[/caption]

Similarly, there is GPS senior tracker that keeps a track over senior citizens for their safety. For example, PocketFinder is designed to keep a watch over elderly ones that mostly rely on public transportation, family or friends. It is also true that these devices help to track those elderly ones who live in remote locations from the family members. Personal tracking device enables to identify the location by the family members. It maintains the peace of mind and safety for the people. Devices like Pocket Finder easily fit into the jackets or pants of elderly people. It also sends near real time alerts if the tracker is out of zone (PocketFinder Personal Outdoor GPS Trackers 2015).

[caption id="attachment_2266" align="aligncenter" width="541"] Figure 1.2: (PocketFinder Personal Outdoor GPS Trackers 2015).[/caption]

Personal tracking devices are also built for pets that generally get lost. So, by using these devices it is easy for the family members or owners of pet to keep a watch or locate the location of pets when they are out of home. There is also device built for tracking teenagers for monitoring their activities like driving. It is so, as teenagers generally drive fast due to their style and friend circle to show their skills. Hence, these kinds of devices are useful to track the teenagers and help them out if they are at risk. Personal tracking devices like PocketFinder also assist the family members or relatives to be updated by sending information with the area of 10 feet (PocketFinder Personal Outdoor GPS Trackers 2015). As a result of this, people can keep their loved ones from harm by tracking them when they are out of home or their reach.

For the workers or employees of the company, personal tracking devices are used significantly. For example, by using these devices, firms can save their money by tracking their drivers in terms of their location. These kinds of trackers are useful for firms operating in tour and travels sector. With GPS trackers, cab drivers can be easily tracked and monitored.

Advantages of Personal Tracking Device

There are different benefits or advantages of using personal tracking devices. These can be discussed as below:

For Customers: With personal tracking devices, it becomes easy to ensure accuracy, efficiency, reliability, security, pace and affordability for the customers (Harrison 2012).

For Drivers: By using personal tracking devices for the staff workers like drivers, firms can avail benefits of proof of service, improve the security, increase the safety of driver and reward the hard work of the drivers.

For Management: Personal tracking devices also offer numerous benefits or advantages to the management. These are increased productivity, sales revenue, developed marketing tools, better customer service, fewer accidents, winning new business and improving the image.

Sales representatives: Personal tracking devices also provide benefits to the sales representatives. With these devices, sales personnel can improve their territory management, enhance navigation and increase their security.

Private Investigation: Personal tracking devices are also useful for private investigation if required by the family members for an individual with suspect.

Real Time Situational Awareness: Personal tracking devices also give real time situational awareness to the users (The Benefit of Personal Tracking Devices 2011, para. 2).

Safety Tools: Personal tracking devices are helpful, as they be utilized as a safety tool to keep a track over people, children and senior citizens.

Disadvantage of Personal of Tracking Device

There are several drawbacks or disadvantages of using personal tracking devices. These are as follow:

Cost: Personal tracking devices are costly. So, people who cannot afford them are not the target market of these devices.

Awareness: Personal tracking devices are only successful, if they have enough publicity or word of mouth. It is so, as if people are not aware about their uses or benefits, they will not buy them (Verbeke, Schulz, Greidanus & Hambley 2008).

Power Consumption: Power consumption of personal tracking devices is high. So, it is a main disadvantage of using these devices for personal tracking.

Job Dissatisfaction: In many firms, personal tracking devices are used to keep a track over their employees like cab drivers or sales representatives. So, these kinds of activities generally create job satisfaction among the employees which is not good for their productivity.

Commitment: Commitment of people especially workers may also reduce due to tracking of their activities. So, due to this, they may not invest their 100% to complete their job related tasks or activities.

Misuse: Personal tracking devices can be misused also by people especially teenagers or youngsters who the applications. So, for college going students, these kinds of devices are observed as a fun. They can use them for abusing their classmates or taking revenge in case of any competition. Hence, it is a negative side of using personal tracking devices.

Complexity: Personal tracking devices become complex to use in the case of linkage. So, the users must have knowledge of tracking devices like GPS tracker, otherwise it becomes just an additional tool for their pocket.

Access: Personal tracking devices only send information within a particular range with power back up. Hence, if they are not charged, they are useless for the users or individuals to keep a track.

Communication: Communication also plays a great role in personal tracking devices. So, if the users have proper communication channels or access to these channels, they can take advantage, otherwise these devices are not worth enough.

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion, it can be inferred that personal tracking devices have become the trend of the world. They are used to locate, monitor and track the people for their safety and security. In addition, as per the trend analysis, it is also projected that in coming years, personal tracking device business is likely to grow faster than any other applications. Technologies are likely to form to keep a track over offenders, pet and personal items for the security. It is also important to consider the challenges of using emerging technologies like tracking devices to avoid any litigations or social issues in the future.