Fall detection using sensors in a smart monitoring safety system

Inventors

Johnson, Steven Gail • del Carpio, Derek • Fathman, James M.

Assignees

CareView Communications Inc

Abstract

A smart monitoring system comprising a plurality of sensor devices coupled to appliances and fixtures within a dwelling environment, where at least one of the plurality of sensor devices comprises sensor elements including an accelerometer. The system further comprising a computing device operative to receive event signals from the plurality of sensor devices, identify a possible fall event from one or more of the plurality of sensor devices based on the event signals, sample sensor data from one or more of the plurality of sensor devices wherein the sensor data includes measurements of movement. The computer device is further operative to determine a fall has occurred based on the sampled sensor data, sample additional sensor data from the one or more of the plurality of sensor devices for additional motion at a period of time subsequent to the possible fall event, and determine a recovery from the fall based on the additional sensor data.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a smart monitoring safety system for a dwelling environment that uses a plurality of sensor devices coupled to appliances and fixtures. At least one sensor device includes sensor elements including an accelerometer and a near-field sensor device configured to detect signals from wireless transmitter devices attached to at least one person being monitored. The system detects signals representative of actions with the at least one person by receiving event signals from the plurality of sensor devices.

The system identifies a possible fall event from one or more of the plurality of sensor devices based on the event signals, then samples sensor data from the one or more of the plurality of sensor devices upon the identification of the possible fall event. The sampled sensor data includes values representative of measurements of movement, and the system determines whether a fall has occurred based on the sampled sensor data. The system then samples additional sensor data for additional motion at a period of time subsequent to the possible fall event, where the additional motion includes a sustained increase in amplitude of movement over the period of time.

Based on the additional sensor data including the additional motion, the system determines a presence of recovery from the fall, and generates notifications for an alarm based on the determination of the fall and the presence of recovery. The notifications are transmitted over a communication network to a client device, and the alarm activates a web interface to cause the alarm to display on the client device and to enable a connection from the client device to the computing device. The system also generates trends associated with health and safety conditions including behaviors in mobility based on the event signals.

Claims Coverage

The independent claim set includes three independent claims. Across these claims, the core inventive features are a multi-sensor dwelling-coupled sensing arrangement, possible-fall identification followed by movement-based fall determination, recovery determination based on sustained movement amplitude, alarm generation with transmission to a client via a web interface, and generation of health-and-safety mobility trends from the event signals.

Collectively, the claims cover a dwelling-environment smart monitoring system that detects a possible fall event, determines whether a fall occurred from sampled movement measurements, determines recovery presence from subsequent sustained increased movement amplitude, and generates/transmits alarm notifications to a client while also generating health-and-safety mobility trends.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications