In 1977, a New Mexico judge reading The Amazing Spider-Man comic in his daily newspaper had a flash of inspiration. In the strip (excerpted above), Kingpin is seen slapping an "electronic radar device" on Spidey's wrist so he could "zero in" on Spidey's location whenever he wanted. Judge Jack Love realized such a device would be of great use people in the criminal justice system, such as those convicted of drunk driving who were banned from going to bars or driving. So Love partnered with an engineer named Michael Goss to make the "Goss-Link" system, which he described as "electronic handcuffs." Goss's company that he launched to cash in on the idea didn't survive, but electronic monitoring remains a key technology in the criminal justice system. From Gizmodo:
The Goss-Link was roughly the size of a pack of cigarettes and communicated with a receiver that was attached to the home telephone. The device sent a signal every 60 seconds to the receiver, which was able to dial a central computer if the device was found to be out of range during one of those pings every minute. In this case, being out of range was roughly 150 feet from your home telephone.
Judge Love was himself the first person to wear the Goss-Link as an experiment, putting the ankle monitor on his own leg to see how it operated. A newspaper article syndicated by UPI in 1983 quotes the judge about the experience.
"It put me on a very, very short leash," Love said at the time, even claiming that he wore the device in the shower.
"How 'The Amazing Spider-Man' Led to the Creation of the Prisoner Ankle Monitor" by Matt Novak (Gizmodo)
