Japan’s largest telco announces child-tracking wearable, ‘Docotch’

For parents, the world outside the safety of home can be a scary place. Work and other commitments make it impossible to monitor children once they have left the nest, but a new wearable from NTT Docomo – announced this morning in Tokyo – seeks to ease their worries.

Docotch is a wristwatch-like device that allows parents to track their child’s location and communicate in the case of danger or natural disaster. It utilizes 3G connectivity, GPS, and Bluetooth – as well as air temperature and humidity sensors – to pinpoint a wearer’s location.

Docotch is pre-loaded with text messages that can be sent to a parent’s mobile device via SMS. One press of the watch’s “panic button” sends up to six emails at once if the child gets into trouble. For smaller children, a Bluetooth feature can be activated that sounds an alert if the child wanders too far away from the parent. The watch also support’s Docomo’s “Imadoco” GPS location alerts.

From a western perspective, children in Japan are particularly independent – a byproduct of living in one of the safest countries on earth. Elementary school-aged children can be spotted on buses and subways each morning, navigating the route to school all on their own. Unfortunately, even in a country where violent crime is rare, dangers still exist.

“[Docotch] is especially important in light of recent tragic events,” said Docomo brand representative Ken Watanabe, the Japanese Hollywood actor known for his roles in The Last Samurai, Inception, and the latest Godzilla reboot. His comment alluded to the murder of a six-year-old girl in Kobe, a city in Western Japan, whose body was found just 100 meters from her home. She was allegedly abducted by a neighbor after walking from from school on September 11.

See: Here’s how a father’s love for his daughter compelled him to create this safety wearable

Docomo’s latest wearable for kids will launch in March 2015, along with a companion service that streams data to the parents’ computers and smartphones. The company didn’t divulge information concerning pricing or language support.