Elder Tracking and Fall Detection System Using Smart Tiles

Abstract

Fall detection for elderly and patient is a very important service that has the potential of increasing autonomy of elders while minimizing the risks of living alone. It has been an active research topic due to the fact that health care industry has a big demand for products and technology of fall detection systems. Owing to the recent rapid advancement in sensing and wireless communication technologies, fall detection systems have become possible. They allow detecting fall events for the elderly, monitoring them, and consequently providing necessary help whenever needed. This paper describes the ongoing work of detecting falls in independent living senior apartments using force sensors and three-axis accelerometers concealed under intelligent tiles. The force sensors permit detecting elders' falls, locating, tracking, and recognizing human activities (walking, standing, sitting, lying down, falling, and the transitions between them). However, the detection accuracy on real data contains false alarms coming from falling and lying postures. To solve this issue, we propose the fusion between the force sensor measurements and the accelerometer sensor decisions. As a consequence, the system accuracy is satisfactory, and the results show that the proposed methods are efficient, and they can be easily used in a real elder tracking and fall detection system.