Sure it’s cheaper but requires someone be nearby with an iPhone/android. Ankle monitor I presume has gps and SIM card… I guess that’s an optimized iwatch for battery life.
I am skeptical of anything with a battery. My mother who is 80 can keep absolutely nothing charged. Batteries die and they are not recharged until someone charges and reconnects.
Ideally some future tech will not require batteries or they will last a year or so.
Great project, I am happy to see this area pushed forward.
I'm aware of a guy who was in house arrest for a while. Apparently ankle monitors false alarm so very, very, very frequently. And every time they do, the officer (whether of the court of of the law) who's in charge of monitoring you needs to get involved to ascertain that yes, you are still at your house, and yes, it is the shitass lowest-bidder carcerial-system trash that's faulting _again_ and wasting everyone's time and energy, and no, you are not getting cute or clever and wasting everyone's time by running away, or tampering with your shitass anklet.
Long story short, some entity who actually gave a shit (and also wasn't gunning for you to replace it with a new model every three years) would need to build any such device.