Looking at Jacob Allen yesterday in the Morgantown High School cafeteria, there was no sign that the severely autistic teenager had recently spent four days lost in the woods without food or water.

Flanked by his parents, Jacob high-fived police officers and members of the media, and squeezed the fuzzy heads of television station microphones.

The family held a media event to celebrate the fact that Jacob was being outfitted with a Project Lifesaver tracking bracelet, a device that will ensure that he remains close to his parents' sides.

"This gives us a whole lot more peace of mind," said Jacob's father, Jim Allen. "What happened will not happen again. If he does get lost, they'll be able to find him right away."

Jacob, who cannot communicate verbally and has the mental capacity of a 3- or 4-year-old child, strayed from his parents during an Oct. 14 hike near West Virginia's Dolly Sods Wilderness Area. His disappearance prompted a massive search involving hundreds of volunteers tramping through terrain described as some of the most rugged in the state.

After his rescue, Jacob was treated only for dehydration and has no lasting health effects, said his mother.

The Project Lifesaver bracelets, which first became available in Chesapeake, Va., in 1999, transmit an individualized radio signal that law enforcement personnel can pick up within a one-mile radius using specially designed devices.

About 1,600 people -- many of whom are Alzheimer's patients -- have been rescued nationwide through Project Lifesaver, said Mark King, captain of the Wood County, W.Va., sheriff's office. The average rescue time is less than half an hour.

The Autism Center of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh-based AutismLink donated about $300 to get Jacob the bracelet.

"We wanted to make sure this doesn't happen again," said AutismLink Director Cindy Waeltermann, noting that the organization has given away more than a dozen bracelets in the last year. "We feel very strongly that children with autism who wander or who don't have a good understanding of safety should be fitted with these bracelets to avoid incidents such as these."

Karen Allen had actually been searching for a tracking device for Jacob prior to his disappearance, but hadn't heard of Project Lifesaver until she read an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette while Jacob was still missing.

Jacob has always had a tendency to wander, and the possibility of him getting lost has "been a concern of ours since he could walk," said his father, Jim Allen. "We've had several incidents, but he really outdid himself this time."

Wood County was the first in West Virginia to get a Project Lifesaver system in 2005, and conducted its first search using the bracelet this past summer. West Virginia sheriff's departments have been able to purchase the Project Lifesaver systems, which cost thousands of dollars each, through a donation from Elizabeth Raese, whose family owns the large Morgantown corporation, Greer Industries.

In Monongalia County, where the Allen family lives, the sheriff's department did their first training session on Project Lifesaver on Oct. 22, coincidentally the day after Jacob disappeared.

Had Jacob been wearing such a bracelet during the Dolly Sods hike, he would have been found within hours instead of days, said his father.

In the week since the Allen family has returned home, Jacob has returned to his special education classes at Morgantown High, where his 14-year-old brother, Micah, is also a freshman.

"I appreciate my brother a lot more," said Micah. "That week didn't feel real. It felt like something that would never happen, but it did."

His mother, meanwhile, has been trying to keep up with phone calls from family, friends and even strangers across the country.

"We're just enjoying listening to people's stories," said Karen Allen, who has been surprised by the number of people who have told her that they view the search for Jacob as a defining moment in their lives.

To thank those who helped with the search, the family is holding an ice cream party on Nov. 10 at the Canaan Valley Ski Lodge, which was used as a staging area for volunteers. The Edy's company is donating the ice cream, one of Jacob's favorite foods.

Though Jacob can do limited communication though a Picture Exchange Communication System, he won't be able to tell his family what he went through in the woods.

But to his brother, Jacob's demeanor does seem slightly different. "He's changed a little bit," said Micah. "He seems to smile a lot more."

He doesn't seem to be scared of the dark, said his mother, and showed no signs of mental trauma during a trial walk in a small, wooded park near their home.

"He lives in the moment, so I don't think he really knows if he was [lost] five hours or five days," she said. "In that way, the autism was a blessing."