A system for monitoring fall signs using radar

Abstract

The present invention relates to a radar-based fall warning system that utilizes a radar sensor to identify the shape, movement patterns, and degree of intrusion into an area designated as a fall risk zone of a user on a bed, and based on this, pre-determines the likelihood of a fall and safety of the user, thereby preventing potential fall accidents in advance and enabling immediate post-accident response and measures in the event of a fall.

Description

Technology Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a fall warning system using radar, and more specifically, to a fall warning system using radar that identifies the shape, movement patterns, and degree of intrusion into an area designated as a fall risk zone of a user on a bed using a radar sensor, and predetermines the likelihood of a fall and safety of the user based on this, thereby preventing potential fall accidents in advance and enabling immediate post-accident response and measures when a fall accident occurs. Background Technology

[0003] With the trend of sleeping on soft and comfortable beds rather than cold and hard floors becoming more common, there are also many fall accidents where people fall from the bed onto the floor unconsciously while sleeping.

[0004] In particular, in the case of high beds, the significant height difference between the floor and the mattress poses a risk of serious accidents if the user falls unconsciously during sleep. Furthermore, among young children who toss and turn excessively, even if they initially sleep in the center of the bed, their tossing and turning intensifies, causing them to move toward the edges; consequently, accidents involving falls from the edges while sleeping occur frequently.

[0005] To prevent such safety accidents, a technology has been developed that installs physical sensors on the edges of mattresses or beds to notify the sleeping user when some of their body weight is applied or when they enter the sensor's range.

[0006] However, these conventional technologies cause various problems, such as users feeling discomfort and a sense of unfamiliarity due to the physical sensor itself, and sensor mis-detection caused by the weight of bedding rather than the actual user's weight. Therefore, there is a need for the development of technology that can detect and judge danger in advance before a fall accident occurs, thereby notifying the user of a dangerous situation in advance, while ensuring that the user does not feel discomfort or a sense of unfamiliarity while sleeping. Prior art literature

[0008] Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2023-0148052 The problem to be solved

[0009] The present invention is derived to solve the aforementioned problems and aims to provide a radar-based fall warning system that utilizes a radar sensor to identify the shape, movement patterns, and degree of intrusion into an area designated as a fall risk zone of a user on a bed, and based on this, pre-determines the likelihood of a fall and safety of the user, thereby preventing potential fall accidents in advance and enabling immediate post-accident response and measures in the event of a fall. means of solving the problem

[0011] A fall warning system (100) using radar according to one embodiment of the present invention may include a radar sensor (110) installed toward a user's bed and sensing whether the user's body intrudes into a preset fall risk area, a communication unit (120) connected to the radar sensor (110), and a fall monitoring unit (130) that determines the possibility of the user falling based on the intrusion range into the fall risk area.

[0012] In one embodiment, the communication unit (120) may assign a port to each packet of a plurality of sensing values ​​sensed through the radar sensor (110) within a plurality of communication ports so that the sensing values ​​are classified and received by each port.

[0013] In one embodiment, the fall monitoring unit (130) can identify the intruded body part, the extent of the intrusion of the body part, and the user's posture when a part of the user's body intrudes into the fall risk area set on both edges of the bed.

[0014] In one embodiment, the fall monitoring unit (130) may determine that there is a possibility of a fall if the extent of intrusion of the body part encroached upon relative to the total area of ​​the fall risk area exceeds a preset threshold.

[0015] In one embodiment, the fall monitoring unit (130) may determine that there is a possibility of a fall if the range of intrusion of the body part encroached upon relative to the total area of ​​the fall risk area does not exceed a preset threshold, but the user's movement continues to occur near the fall risk area.

[0016] In one embodiment, when the fall monitoring unit (130) determines that there is a possibility of a user falling, it may transmit a risk alert to a registered management terminal or output a risk alert through a notification means installed in the bedroom or a user terminal.

[0017] In one embodiment, the fall monitoring unit (130) can determine whether the user has fallen based on the results of measuring the distances of the bed, the user, and the floor, respectively, based on the installation location of the radar sensor (110).

[0018] In one embodiment, the fall monitoring unit (130) sets distance information for the bed, the user, and the floor, respectively, based on the installation location of the radar sensor (110), and then, when the distance between the user and the floor becomes closer, if the speed of the approach exceeds the fall standard speed threshold, it is determined that the user has fallen from the bed, and a danger alert may be output through a notification means installed in the bedroom or a user terminal. Effects of the invention

[0020] According to one aspect of the present invention, a radar sensor is used to identify the shape and movement patterns of a user on a bed and the degree of intrusion into an area set as a fall risk zone. By predetermining the likelihood of a fall and the user's safety based on this, the invention has the advantage of preventing potential fall accidents in advance.

[0021] In particular, according to the present invention, it has the advantage of enabling immediate follow-up measures and actions in the event of a fall accident.

[0022] In addition, according to the present invention, by allocating a port to each packet of various sensing values ​​obtained through a radar sensor so that the sensing values ​​are classified and received by each port, it is easy to process and handle the sensing values ​​received by each port without separate data processing or complex calculations on the server, and it is advantageous for individual socket communication during server communication, can reduce errors caused by network traffic, and has the advantage of increasing the efficiency of sensor communication and DB management.

[0023] In particular, according to the present invention, in addition to radar sensors, ports are distinguished and individually assigned to each of the various sensors installed in the bedroom, thereby providing the advantage of directly storing and efficiently managing sensor data received for each port. Brief explanation of the drawing

[0025] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a fall sign monitoring system (100) using radar according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a concept in which a port is assigned to each packet of sensing values ​​received from a radar sensor (110) in a communication unit (120), so that the sensing values ​​are classified and received by each port. Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating the concept of setting a fall risk area in the fall monitoring unit (130) and determining the possibility of a fall based on a body part that has encroached upon the set fall risk area. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the process of determining the possibility of a user falling based on the sensing value of the radar sensor (110) in the fall monitoring unit (130) in a series of sequences. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the process of determining a user fall and taking action in the fall monitoring unit (130). Specific details for implementing the invention

[0026] Preferred embodiments are presented below to aid in understanding the present invention. However, the following embodiments are provided merely to facilitate a better understanding of the invention, and the scope of the invention is not limited by these embodiments.

[0028] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a fall sign monitoring system (100) using radar according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0029] Referring to FIG. 1, a fall sign monitoring system (100) using radar according to one embodiment of the present invention is largely composed of a radar sensor (110), a communication unit (120), and a fall monitoring unit (130).

[0030] First, the radar sensor (110) is installed facing the user's bedroom, particularly the bed, and serves to sense whether the user's body is entering a pre-set fall risk area.

[0031] At this time, in addition to simply checking whether the user's body encroaches upon the fall risk zone, the system senses the state of all the user's behaviors and actions, such as tossing and turning during sleep, whether the user moves closer to the edges of the bed designated as the fall risk zone, the user's sleeping posture, and the direction of sleep.

[0032] Generally, to measure a user's sleep state, physical sensors are typically installed along the edges of the mattress or bed to notify the sleeping user when their body weight is applied or when they enter the sensor's range. However, these technologies present various problems, such as users feeling discomfort and a sense of unfamiliarity due to being conscious of the physical sensors themselves, and false detections caused by the weight of the bedding rather than the user's actual body weight.

[0033] However, in the present invention, the radar sensor (110) is an FMCW radar of 60 GHz or higher with a Multi-channel Tx / Rx Antenna design. This can detect human breathing by utilizing a high-precision Doppler effect (which can precisely measure the position and velocity of a target by utilizing the delay time and phase difference of the Doppler effect reflected back from the target after Tx transmission), and has the advantage of allowing the user to focus on sleep without feeling any discomfort or strangeness while sleeping, as precise resolution is possible due to the wide bandwidth.

[0034] When a part of the user's body (e.g., arms, legs, etc.) encroaches upon the fall risk area set at both edges of the bed, the radar sensor (110) detects this and transmits it to the fall monitoring unit (130) described later. Based on this, the fall monitoring unit (130) can determine the location of the encroached body part, the extent of the encroachment, and the posture the user assumes when the encroachment occurs, and then determine the likelihood of the user falling.

[0035] Meanwhile, the installation location of the radar sensor (110) may be installed vertically above the bed, or in some cases, at a location somewhat away.

[0037] The communication unit (120) is connected to the radar sensor (110) and receives sensing data generated from the radar sensor (110) and transmits it to the fall monitoring unit (130). At this time, the communication unit (120) may not simply transmit the entire packet of sensing data transmitted from the radar sensor (110) as a single unit, but may divide and allocate ports according to each sensing value, and then classify the sensing values ​​by each port so that they are transmitted to the fall monitoring unit (130). This is described as follows.

[0038] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a concept in which a port is assigned to each packet of sensing values ​​received from a radar sensor (110) in a communication unit (120), so that the sensing values ​​are classified and received by each port.

[0039] Referring to FIG. 2, the communication unit (120) receives various sensing values ​​(such as whether a part of the user's body encroaches upon an area set as a fall risk area, and the degree of encroachment of the encroached body part) from the radar sensor (110) through a network interface (Ethernet / Wifi). At this time, a port is individually assigned according to the packet of each sensing value, and the sensing values ​​can be classified and received by each port.

[0040] For example, assuming that the fall monitoring unit (130) is a separate monitoring server, the fall monitoring unit (130) has a unique IP (e.g., 192.168.0.100). At this time, for the same IP, the radar sensor (110) can be assigned a port in the 400s, the IAQ sensor can be assigned a port in the 500s, and the light sensor can be assigned a port in the 600s.

[0041] In the communication unit (120), for the 400-series ports classified for the radar sensor (110), a port with a port value of 400 is assigned to the motion pattern sensing value, a port with a port value of 401 is assigned to the motion area sensing value, and a port with a port value of 402 is assigned to the speed sensing value. At this time, the number of ports can be increased or decreased as much as needed depending on the type of sensing value of the radar sensor (110).

[0042] Through this, the fall monitoring unit (130) can receive packets of sensing values ​​divided by classified ports, so the data processing speed is significantly faster compared to when all data is included in a single packet, errors caused by network traffic can be reduced, and there is an advantage in that it is much more advantageous for DB management of each sensing value.

[0043] In addition, the communication unit (120) can efficiently manage numerous data by first assigning a major category port to each of various sensors, such as power monitoring sensors, gas sensors, barometric pressure sensors, motion sensors, photo sensors, ToF sensors, and LiDAR sensors, in addition to these sensors, and then assigning a minor category port to the major category port according to the sensing value. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the number and types of applicable sensors are not limited.

[0045] The fall monitoring unit (130) determines the possibility of a user falling based on sensing data transmitted through the communication unit (120) and plays a role in preventing fall accidents in advance. This is examined in more detail as follows.

[0046] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the concept of setting a fall risk area in the fall monitoring unit (130) and determining the possibility of a fall based on a body part that has encroached upon the set fall risk area, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the process of determining the possibility of a user falling based on the sensing value of the radar sensor (110) in the fall monitoring unit (130) in a series of sequences.

[0047] Looking at FIG. 3, the fall monitoring unit (130) first sets a portion of the edges on both sides of the bed as a fall risk area during the process of sensing the bed through the radar sensor (110) mentioned earlier. This area is not an area where a fall is judged if the user's body intrudes, but rather a reference area for judging the possibility of a fall.

[0048] That is, the fall monitoring unit (130) does not unconditionally determine that there is a risk of falling even if the user's body partially overlaps or encroaches upon the fall risk area, but rather determines comprehensively which part of the user's body encroaches upon the fall risk area, the extent of the encroachment of that body part, what the user's sleeping posture is at the time, the extent of movement (tossing and turning) while in that posture, and which direction the user is sleeping, and finally determines whether there is a possibility of falling.

[0049] For example, the fall monitoring unit (130) can determine that there is a possibility of a fall by analyzing the user's current posture and recognizing that the user's weight may shift toward the fall risk area when the extent of the user's body part encroached upon relative to the total area of ​​the fall risk area exceeds a preset threshold (e.g., 60%). In particular, the main parts where there is a possibility of a fall may be parts where the center of gravity is likely to shift, such as the elbows, knees, head, and hip joints.

[0050] Alternatively, the fall monitoring unit (130) may determine that there is a possibility of a fall even if the range of intrusion of the body part intruded by the user relative to the total area of ​​the fall risk area does not exceed a preset threshold (e.g., 60%), but if the number of times the user's movement (turning) is counted near the fall risk area continues to occur and exceeds a certain value, it may determine that the user may potentially get closer to the edge while tossing and turning.

[0051] In this case, the fall monitoring unit (130) may output a danger alert through a notification means installed in the bedroom or a user terminal, or transmit a fall risk alert to a registered management terminal. Here, the notification means installed in the bedroom may be a speaker that outputs a loud sound, a flashing LED, or a warning light. In addition, the user terminal may be the mobile phone of the user who is currently sleeping, or it may be the mobile phone of another person who is registered in advance through the user terminal, such as an acquaintance, family member, or guardian. In addition, in one embodiment, in addition to the mobile phone, a danger alert regarding the possibility of the user falling may be transmitted to servers of various linked organizations capable of taking immediate action, such as a fire department server or a hospital server.

[0052] Referring to FIG. 4, the fall monitoring unit (130) first sets a portion of the edges on both sides of the bed as a fall risk area during the process of sensing the bed through the radar sensor (110) (S401), and the radar sensor (110) senses whether the user's body encroaches upon the pre-set fall risk area and transmits this to the fall monitoring unit (130) (S402).

[0053] If a part of the user's body encroaches upon the fall risk area, the fall monitoring unit (130) determines comprehensively which part of the user's body encroaches upon the fall risk area, the extent of the encroachment of the body part, what the user's sleeping posture is, the extent of movement (tossing and turning) while in that posture, and the direction in which the user sleeps, and finally determines whether there is a possibility of a fall (S403).

[0054] If there is no possibility of a fall, the radar sensor (110) is used to intensively sense whether the user's body has encroached upon the fall risk area to an extent that it increases or decreases (S404). If there is a possibility of a fall, a risk alert is displayed through a notification means installed in the bedroom or a user terminal, or a fall risk alert is transmitted to a pre-registered management terminal (S405).

[0056] In addition, in one embodiment, the fall monitoring unit (130) may quickly determine whether the actual user has fallen from the bed based on the distance between the bed, the user, and the floor, the speed of the fall, etc., when it is determined that a fall accident is imminent as the likelihood of the user falling increases in the fall risk area, and then take measures accordingly. This is described as follows.

[0057] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the process of determining a user fall and taking action in the fall monitoring unit (130).

[0058] Referring to FIG. 5, the fall monitoring unit (130) determines whether the distance between the user and the floor is getting closer based on distance information for the bed, the user, and the floor, respectively, and a fall threshold speed based on the installation location of the radar sensor (110) (S501). If it is determined that the distance is getting closer, it determines whether the speed of getting closer exceeds the fall threshold speed (S502). If it is determined that the speed of the user getting closer to the floor exceeds the fall threshold speed, the fall monitoring unit (130) determines that the user has fallen from the bed (S503) and sends a danger alert to a pre-registered management terminal, or sends a danger alert regarding the user's fall accident to a pre-registered mobile phone of another person, such as an acquaintance, family member, or guardian, or to a server of a fire department or hospital server, which can take immediate action, through the user's terminal (S504).

[0060] Although the present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and changes can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the following claims. Explanation of the symbols

[0062] 100: Radar-based fall risk monitoring system 110: Radar sensor 120: Communications Department 130: Fall Monitoring Unit

Claims

Claim 1 A radar sensor (110) installed facing the user's bed and equipped with a Multi-channel Tx / Rx Antenna design, which is an FMCW radar of 60 GHz or higher and senses whether the user's body intrudes into a pre-set fall risk zone, whether the user tosses and turns during sleep, whether the user gets closer to the edges of the bed set as the fall risk zone, and the user's sleeping posture and sleeping direction; a communication unit (120) connected to the radar sensor (110) and assigns a port to each packet of multiple sensing values ​​sensed through the radar sensor (110) within a plurality of communication ports so that the sensing values ​​are classified and received by each port; A fall warning system using radar, characterized by including: a fall monitoring unit (130) that, when a part of the user's body encroaches upon the fall risk area set on both edges of the bed, identifies the encroached body part, the extent of the encroachment of the body part, and the user's posture, and determines the possibility of a fall by comprehensively determining the user's body part that encroached upon the fall risk area, the extent of the encroachment of the body part, the user's sleeping posture, the degree of movement while assuming the posture, and the direction in which the user sleeps. Claim 2 delete Claim 3 delete Claim 4 A fall warning system using radar, wherein, in claim 1, the fall monitoring unit (130) determines that there is a possibility of a fall when the range of intrusion of the body part that has been encroached upon relative to the total area of ​​the fall risk area exceeds a preset threshold. Claim 5 A fall warning system using radar, characterized in that, in the first paragraph, the fall monitoring unit (130) determines that there is a possibility of a fall when the intrusion range of the body part that has encroached upon the total area of ​​the fall risk area does not exceed a preset threshold, but the user's movement continues to occur near the fall risk area. Claim 6 A fall warning system using radar according to claim 1, wherein the fall monitoring unit (130) is characterized by transmitting a risk alert to a registered management terminal or outputting a risk alert through a notification means installed in the bedroom or a user terminal when it is determined that there is a possibility of a user falling. Claim 7 A fall detection monitoring system using radar, wherein, in claim 1, the fall detection monitoring unit (130) determines whether the user has fallen based on the results of measuring the distances of the bed, the user, and the floor, respectively, based on the installation location of the radar sensor (110). Claim 8 In claim 7, the fall monitoring unit (130) sets distance information for the bed, the user, and the floor, respectively, based on the installation location of the radar sensor (110), and then, when the distance between the user and the floor becomes closer, if the speed of the approach exceeds the fall standard speed threshold, determines that the user has fallen from the bed and outputs a danger alert through a notification means installed in the bedroom or a user terminal, thereby forming a fall warning system using radar.

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