Skip to main content

Design and Evaluation of a Fall Detection Algorithm on Mobile Phone Platform

  • Conference paper
Ambient Media and Systems (AMBI-SYS 2011)

Abstract

The increasingly aging population will pose a severe burden to the health services. Falls are a major health risk that diminishes the quality of life among the elderly people and increases the health services cost. Reliable fall detection and notification is essential to improve the post-fall medical outcome which is largely dependent upon the response and rescue time. In this paper, we analyze mobile phones as a platform for developing a fall detection system. The feasibility of such platform is assessed by running an acceleration based fall detection algorithm on the phone. The algorithm was implemented for the Android OS and tested on several HTC models, which included a MEMS accelerometer. Extensive simulations of fall events as well as activities of daily life were conducted on a lab environment to evaluate the system performance. Experimental results of our system, which we still consider as work in progress, are encouraging making us optimistic regarding the feasibility of a highly reliable phone-based fall detector.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Masud, T., Morris, R.: Epidemiology of falls. Epidemiology of falls Age 30 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Tinetti, M.E., Doucette, J.T., Claus, E.B.: The contribution of predisposing and situational risk factors to serious fall injuries. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 43 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bezon, J., Echevarria, K.H., Smith, G.B.: Nursing outcome indicator: preventing falls for elderly people. Outcomes Management for Nursing Practice 3 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  4. United Nations.: World Population Prospects. The 2004 Revision: Economic & Social Affairs (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Aminian, K., Najafi, B.: Capturing human motion using body-fixed sensors: outdoor measurement and clinical applications. Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds 15 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Doughty, K., Lewis, R., McIntosh, A.: The design of a practical and reliable fall detector for community and institutional telecare. J. Telemed. Telecare (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Wu, G.: Distinguishing fall activities from normal activities by velocity characteristics. Journal of Biomechanics 33 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Bourke, A.K., O’Donovan, K.J., Olaighin, G.: The identification of vertical velocity profiles using an inertial sensor to investigate pre-impact detection of falls. Med. Eng. Phys. (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  9. http://www.obsmedical.com/products/telecare-assisted-living/vivatec-nurse-call-system (accessed October 27, 2010)

  10. Porteus, J., Brownsell, S.: Using telecare: exploring technologies for independent living for older people. Anchor Trust, Kidlington (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Lindemann, U., Hock, A., Stuber, M., Keck, W., Becker, C.: Evaluation of a fall detector based on accelerometers: A pilot study. Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing 43 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang, T.: Fall detection by embedding an accelerometer in cellphone and using KFD algorithm. International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Jiangpeng, D., Xiaole, B., Zhimin, Y., Zhaohui, S., Dong, X.: PerFallD: A pervasive fall detection system using mobile phones. In: 8th IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops, PERCOM Workshops (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Noury, N.: Fall detection - Principles and Methods. In: 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Noury, N., Rumeau, P., Bourke, A.K., Laighin, G., Lundy, J.E.: A proposal for the classification and evaluation of fall detectors. In: IRBM, vol. 29 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Garret, B.: An accelerometer Based Fall Detector: Development, Experimentation, and Analysis. Report (2005)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Cite this paper

Silva, M., Teixeira, P.M., Abrantes, F., Sousa, F. (2011). Design and Evaluation of a Fall Detection Algorithm on Mobile Phone Platform. In: Gabrielli, S., Elias, D., Kahol, K. (eds) Ambient Media and Systems. AMBI-SYS 2011. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 70. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23902-1_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23902-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23901-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23902-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics