Fall Detector with Physiological Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fall detection systems introduce delays in alerting for help due to the use of a revocation period, which can be critical for users who have suffered severe falls, especially those with underlying health issues, as they may not be able to press a personal help button or be unconscious.
Innovation Solution
A fall detector system that measures physiological characteristics, such as heart rate, respiration, and body temperature, to determine if an alert should be expedited, allowing for immediate notification if these characteristics deviate from normal values, thereby reducing the time to receive assistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a revocation period is used to determine whether the user has recovered from a fall, then false alarms are reduced, but the time to receive help is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment by measuring physiological characteristics (heart rate, respiration, body temperature) immediately upon detecting a fall event, before the revocation period expires. This preliminary action enables the system to identify users who require urgent assistance and expedite their alert transmission, thereby reducing the time to receive help while maintaining reliability through physiological validation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the alert triggering mechanism based on physiological characteristics. Instead of using a fixed revocation period for all users, the system adapts the alert timing by evaluating physiological data - expediting alerts for users with abnormal physiological readings while maintaining the revocation period for those with normal readings, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and time loss.
2Loss of time
If physiological characteristic measurements are continuously monitored, then urgent cases are detected faster, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic measurement of physiological characteristics only when triggered by a fall event, rather than continuous monitoring. The processor is configured to measure physiological parameters at specific intervals following a fall detection, enabling urgent cases to be identified quickly while minimizing power consumption by keeping the sensor inactive during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs physiological measurements as a preliminary action immediately following fall detection, before initiating the full alert sequence. This timing strategy enables rapid identification of urgent cases while consuming power only when necessary, rather than maintaining continuous monitoring that would significantly increase power consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a method of operating a fall detector, the method comprising, on detecting a fall event by a user of the fall detector, measuring at least one physiological characteristic of the user; and using the measurement of the at least one physiological characteristic to determine whether to expedite an alert that the user has fallen. An apparatus comprising a processor that is configured to perform the method described above is also provided.