This is the kind of concept1 the internet of things needs. It's a new project on kickstarter (US only unfortunately), a new kind of wireless tracking device to develop on. Each one of these devices will be able to talk to all of the others that are in range, so just by having one of these fellers (monitoring your dog, say, as in their example) you'll be helping all the other iota owners to monitor their dogs too, without everyone needing to be in range of a power sapping mobile device.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe in the far South. Wed + father to 2, I am a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.