An IoT Based Fall Detection System

Abstract

Statistics suggest that, falls in elderly people are more common than we usually anticipate. These falls are often the leading cause of grave injuries and sometimes even lead to death. Astonishingly, falls are the reason of death in 70% of people in the age group of 75 and older. “More than 90 percent of hip fractures occur as a result of falls, with most of these fractures occurring in persons over 70 years of age. One third of community-dwelling elderly persons and 60 percent of nursing home residents fall each year.” (George F. Fuller, COL, MC, USA, White House Medical Clinic, Washington, D.C.; Am Fam Physician, 2000). With such statistical data in hand, it has become an urgent need to device a system to alert the people nearby and attract the help that is direly needed in the situations like these. The purpose of this project is to provide the necessary help through a device that would detect the fall through a series of sensors. The device essentially, measures the speed, orientation, weight of the person in question. It makes use of an associate degree measuring system, a rotating mechanism, a load sensing element, a Wi-Fi module and a microcontroller. Any abruption in the original data in respect to speed, orientation or weight is recorded and further transmitted and monitored to be registered as a fall. Subsequently, an alarm is set into working and the concerned people are notified through a series of signals transmitted and received through the microcontroller. Many a time, a mere change out of co-incidence can get registered as a “fall” and set off false alarms and unnecessarily create panic. Such a situation was anticipated and thus, a safety button, also called as, nap button, was installed in the device. The button snoozes the system of sensors for a certain time period. The device in discussion is customized to be set or fixed on the wheelchairs, if the person in discussion is wheelchair dependent. Additionally, a wearable device is also made available. This custom made device will make it possible for the people to get emergent help and to prevent further catastrophic damage from happening.