A schoolboy's invention which was inspired by the plight of his dementia-suffering grandmother has been shortlisted in a prestigious national competition.
Zac Flynn came up with the Track-A-Bod app and chip, a microchip which enables people and pets to be tracked via GPS, after his family were forced to call police when his gran, who has Alzheimer’s, repeatedly got lost while walking her dog.
Now, the Fulham Boys School pupil is one of six children shortlisted for a competition to ‘invent the future’ run by Your Life.
Speaking in a his competition entry, the 12-year-old said: “I have made this invention based on personal experience. My gran has Alzheimer’s and when she takes her dog for a walk she can get confused about the time and she can get lost.
"Because of this we have had to call the police to find her on three occasions.
“But if we had a GPS tracker we could find her ourselves and it would be far less worry for everyone.
“An ap on your phone would be able to read the GPS signal and the chip would have a scanner to only allow friends, family and the emergency services to access the signal because we wouldn’t want any random person just finding her.
“This technology doesn’t have to be confined to old people. It can be used to track any age and help find lost pets as well.”
Your Life is an organisation dedicated to boosting the uptake in post-16 study of maths and physics and the competition saw teenagers across the country come up with ideas for new inventions, with the shortlist announced from 140 entries this week.
Entries were judged on their innovation, creativity and practicality. There was also a live public vote, with the winner announced on Tuesday (June 21).
To vote for Zac, click on and like his You Tube video .
