Autodesk powers Disney Mobile's Family Locator

The Disney Mobile MVNO announced that Autodesk is the location-based services (LBS) company behind its Family Locator feature in the soon-to-be-launched wireless service. The brand is using Autodesk's LocationLogic platform and software applications to enable parents to locate their children's handsets using GPS technology. Other features allow parents to set spending allowances for their children's mobile phone usage, restrict cell phone usage at set intervals and program restricted and "always on" cell phone numbers and contacts.

While at an analyst summit last month for Telcordia, I watched a presentation by LBS company NorBelle. Since Disney uses Telcordia's hosted solutions platform for parts of its MVNO's billing platform, I assumed NorBelle had something to do with Disney Mobile's LBS offering. NorBelle has some impressive patents on the technology and Telcordia is backing them.

For more on Autodesk and Disney Mobile:
- see this press release