SMALL PRINT:GPS HAS BECOME increasingly ingrained in our daily lives; our smartphones pinpoint where we are, Facebook Places checks us in to where we're socialising, jogging apps figure out where and for how long we run, and in-car navigation systems help us get from A to B. Now an American company is taking GPS into the medical field by offering GPS shoes as an assistant to monitor Alzheimer's and dementia patients.

The shoes, patented by GTX Corp on GPSshoe.com, allow you to track the movements of a family member with Alzheimer’s if they get lost or wander off. You can even map a specific safe area, and if the shoe- wearer leaves that area, the system will send a text message to warn that they might be in danger of getting lost.

The shoes contain a GPS chip and a small cellular device that tracks the location and movement history of the wearer, which can be accessed on a secure cellular network. The so-called “Nana technology” – microchip-based technology that assists and improves the life of older people – is a growing sector in the medical equipment industry and this latest development appears to be one of the most practical and cost-effective ones, with a pair that lasts up to three years costing around €220.