Bright Idea Keeps Tabs on Criminals

Faced with prison overcrowding, offender tagging is viewed by law enforcement agencies worldwide as an extremely cost effective alternative to custody. Some recent reports however have suggested the existence of potential weaknesses in the monitoring equipment being used. This issue looks set to become a thing of the past now as a new generation of monitoring equipment has recently been introduced and looks set to become a huge success. The new ‘OPID’ system, manufactured by Guidance Monitoring Limited, was developed from first concept to production within an incredible 9 month programme in close collaboration with leading product design consultancy Brightworks Limited. The main part of the system is the electronic tag that attaches to the ankle and communicates with a monitoring unit to confirm the person is in their place of curfew. The new tag meets extremely high demands for robustness, comfort, water, temperature and tamper resistance. In order to allow effective collaboration both companies used SolidWorks® to share design information and to keep track of developments. Rapid prototyping techniques were used throughout the programme and finite element analysis was used to optimise the strength of key components. For injection moulded components, hybrid aluminium and steel tooling was produced to balance cost, speed of manufacture and reliability. First mouldings were received within 4 weeks. Brightworks Managing Director Graeme Paterson said: “the design tools, techniques and experience we have allow us to get things right first time and to develop even the most demanding of products in extremely short timescales.” The OPID system has already received national recognition by winning the Plastics Industry Award for Best Industrial Product in 2005, when the tag had the PIA judges “marvelling at the extensive use of plastics with embedded fibre optics in the most modern of applications”.

For more information on Bright Idea Keeps Tabs on Criminals talk to Brightworks Product Design