Context-based fall detection using inertial and location sensors

Abstract

Falls are some of the most common sources of injury among the elderly. A fall is particularly critical when the elderly person is injured and cannot call for help. This problem is addressed by many fall-detection systems, but they often focus on isolated falls under restricted conditions, neglecting complex, real-life situations. In this paper a combination of body-worn inertial and location sensors for fall detection is studied. A novel context-based method that exploits the information from both types of sensors is designed. The evaluation is performed on a real-life scenario, including fast falls, slow falls and fall-like situations that are difficult to distinguish from falls. All the possible combinations of six inertial and four location sensors are tested. The results show that: (i) context-based reasoning significantly improves the performance; (ii) a combination of two types of sensors in a single physical sensor enclosure seems to be the best practical solution.