Designing a fall detection system for elderly

This research looks at the falls of elderly and how elderly can be helped with falling. Of all the elderly falls 20% of the elderly on the ground for longer than an hour. Half of these elderly die within six months of the fall, even when they did not suffer any physical injuries of the fall, the psychological effects can be so dangerous it leads to death. More than half of these falls occur outside of the elderly’s home, where in home fall-detection systems have no view. However, state-of-the-art wearables lack the connectivity of itself and require another device to be close. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop a wearable device which is able to detect a fall of an elderly person and is always connected to a network. The fall can notified to a caregiver or family member who can take appropriate actions through the network it is connected to. With the prototype which was developed tests were carried out. From these tests it can be concluded that it is possible to develop a device which has all the requirements as mentioned before. However, it requires time and effort from the elderly as well.