Recognition of false alarms in fall detection systems

Falls are a major cause of hospitalization and injury-related deaths among the elderly population. The detrimental effects of falls, as well as the negative impact on health services costs, have led to a great interest on fall detection systems by the health-care industry. The most promising approaches are those based on a wearable device that monitors the movements of the patient, recognizes a fall and triggers an alarm. Unfortunately such techniques suffer from the problem of false alarms: some activities of daily living are erroneously reported as falls, thus reducing the confidence of the user. This paper presents a novel approach for improving the detection accuracy which is based on the idea of identifying specific movement patterns into the acceleration data. Using a single accelerometer, our system can recognize these patterns and use them to distinguish activities of daily living from real falls; thus the number of false alarms is reduced

Real-time human ambulation, activity, and physiological monitoring:taxonomy of issues, techniques, applications, challenges and limitations

Automated methods of real-time, unobtrusive, human ambulation, activity, and wellness monitoring and data analysis using various algorithmic techniques have been subjects of intense research. The general aim is to devise effective means of addressing the demands of assisted living, rehabilitation, and clinical observation and assessment through sensor-based monitoring. The research studies have resulted in a large amount of literature. This paper presents a holistic articulation of the research studies and offers comprehensive insights along four main axes: distribution of existing studies; monitoring device framework and sensor types; data collection, processing and analysis; and applications, limitations and challenges. The aim is to present a systematic and most complete study of literature in the area in order to identify research gaps and prioritize future research directions

A Review of Accelerometry-Based Wearable Motion Detectors for Physical Activity Monitoring

Characteristics of physical activity are indicative of one’s mobility level, latent chronic diseases and aging process. Accelerometers have been widely accepted as useful and practical sensors for wearable devices to measure and assess physical activity. This paper reviews the development of wearable accelerometry-based motion detectors. The principle of accelerometry measurement, sensor properties and sensor placements are first introduced. Various research using accelerometry-based wearable motion detectors for physical activity monitoring and assessment, including posture and movement classification, estimation of energy expenditure, fall detection and balance control evaluation, are also reviewed. Finally this paper reviews and compares existing commercial products to provide a comprehensive outlook of current development status and possible emerging technologies

Fall Prediction and Prevention Systems: Recent Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Directions.

Fall prediction is a multifaceted problem that involves complex interactions between physiological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Existing fall detection and prediction systems mainly focus on physiological factors such as gait, vision, and cognition, and do not address the multifactorial nature of falls. In addition, these systems lack efficient user interfaces and feedback for preventing future falls. Recent advances in internet of things (IoT) and mobile technologies offer ample opportunities for integrating contextual information about patient behavior and environment along with physiological health data for predicting falls. This article reviews the state-of-the-art in fall detection and prediction systems. It also describes the challenges, limitations, and future directions in the design and implementation of effective fall prediction and prevention systems

The Emerging Wearable Solutions in mHealth

The marriage of wearable sensors and smartphones have fashioned a foundation for mobile health technologies that enable healthcare to be unimpeded by geographical boundaries. Sweeping efforts are under way to develop a wide variety of smartphone-linked wearable biometric sensors and systems. This chapter reviews recent progress in the field of wearable technologies with a focus on key solutions for fall detection and prevention, Parkinson’s disease assessment and cardiac disease, blood pressure and blood glucose management. In particular, the smartphone-based systems, without any external wearables, are summarized and discussed

Implementing and Evaluating a Wireless Body Sensor System for Automated Physiological Data Acquisition at Home

Advances in embedded devices and wireless sensor networks have resulted in new and inexpensive health care solutions. This paper describes the implementation and the evaluation of a wireless body sensor system that monitors human physiological data at home. Specifically, a waist-mounted triaxial accelerometer unit is used to record human movements. Sampled data are transmitted using an IEEE 802.15.4 wireless transceiver to a data logger unit. The wearable sensor unit is light, small, and consumes low energy, which allows for inexpensive and unobtrusive monitoring during normal daily activities at home. The acceleration measurement tests show that it is possible to classify different human motion through the acceleration reading. The 802.15.4 wireless signal quality is also tested in typical home scenarios. Measurement results show that even with interference from nearby IEEE 802.11 signals and microwave ovens, the data delivery performance is satisfactory and can be improved by selecting an appropriate channel. Moreover, we found that the wireless signal can be attenuated by housing materials, home appliances, and even plants. Therefore, the deployment of wireless body sensor systems at home needs to take all these factors into consideration.Comment: 15 page

Frequency based Classification of Activities using Accelerometer Data

This work presents, the classification of user activities such as Rest, Walk and Run, on the basis of frequency component present in the acceleration data in a wireless sensor network environment. As the frequencies of the above mentioned activities differ slightly for different person, so it gives a more accurate result. The algorithm uses just one parameter i.e. the frequency of the body acceleration data of the three axes for classifying the activities in a set of data. The algorithm includes a normalization step and hence there is no need to set a different value of threshold value for magnitude for different test person. The classification is automatic and done on a block by block basis.Comment: IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems, 2008. MFI 200

Reliable and secure body fall detection algorithm in a wireless mesh network

Falls in elderly is one of the most serious causes of severe injury. Lack in immediate medical help makes these injuries life threatening. An automatic fall detection system, presented in this research, would help reduce the arrival time of medical attention, reduce mortality rate and promote independent living. Therefore, the algorithm finds its application in the medical field, specifically in nursing homes. The system designed and presented in this research is not only capable of detecting human falls but also distinguishing them from routine fall-like activities. Falls are detected with the help of a small wearable embedded device, i.e. Texas Instruments\u27 eZ430 Chronos watch which is wireless development kit. The watch operates at an RF frequency of 915MHz to communicate with each other in a wireless network. The wearable wrist watch is programmable and has an in-built accelerometer sensor and microcontroller circuitry. The accelerometer sensor is motion sensitive and measures the acceleration due to gravity. Whenever a fall is detected the watch sends a signal to the neighboring watch, which is always in the monitoring mode. Signal transmission and reception between these devices is via wireless communication, where every node is a sensor forwarding the signal to the next node. A wireless mesh network helps in quick transmission of signals thereby alerting the authorities. In order to differentiate between body fall and Activities of Daily Life, various body motions and gestures have been studied and presented. The features of a real fall and that of normal human motions are extracted and analyzed from the data obtained by volunteers who participated in the research. Evaluation of results led to setting forth threshold values for parameters like acceleration, change in co-ordinate axes and angle of orientation. Over-passing the threshold raises a fall alarm to bring to the attention of the hospital authority