The design and development of a long-term fall detection system incorporated into a custom vest for the elderly.

A fall detection system and algorithm, incorporated into a custom designed garment has been developed. The developed fall detection system uses a tri-axial accelerometer, microcontroller, battery and Bluetooth module. This sensor is attached to a custom designed vest, designed to be worn by the elderly person under clothing. The fall detection algorithm was developed and incorporates both impact and posture detection capability. The vest and fall algorithm was tested on young healthy subjects performing normal activities of daily living (ADL) and falls onto crash mats, while wearing the best and sensor. Results show that falls can de distinguished from normal activities with a sensitivity >90% and a specificity of >99%, from a total data set of 264 falls and 165 normal ADL. By incorporating the fall-detection sensor into a custom designed garment it is anticipated that greater compliance when wearing a fall-detection system can be achieved and will help reduce the incidence of the long-lie, when falls occur in the elderly population. However further long-term testing using elderly subjects is required to validate the systems performance.

Testing of a long-term fall detection system incorporated into a custom vest for the elderly.

A fall detection system and algorithm, incorporated into a custom designed garment has been developed. The developed fall detection system uses a tri-axial accelerometer to detect impacts and monitor posture. This sensor is attached to a custom designed vest, designed to be worn by the elderly person under clothing. The fall detection algorithm was developed and incorporates both impact and posture detection capability. The vest and fall algorithm was tested by two teams of 5 elderly subjects who wore the sensor system in turn for 2 week each and were monitored for 8 hours a day. The system previously achieved sensitivity of >90% and a specificity of >99%, using young healthy subjects performing falls and normal activities of daily living (ADL). In this study, over 833 hours of monitoring was performed over the course of the four weeks from the elderly subjects, during normal daily activity. In this time no actual falls were recorded, however the system registered a total of the 42 fall-alerts however only 9 were received at the care taker site. A fall detection system incorporated into a custom designed garment has been developed which will help reduce the incidence of the long-lie, when falls occur in the elderly population. However further development is required to reduce the number of false-positives and improve the transmission of messages.