The MobiFall Dataset

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Vavoulas ◽  
Matthew Pediaditis ◽  
Charikleia Chatzaki ◽  
Emmanouil G. Spanakis ◽  
Manolis Tsiknakis
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Communication Services ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Primary Signal

Fall detection is receiving significant attention in the field of preventive medicine, wellness management and assisted living, especially for the elderly. As a result, several fall detection systems are reported in the research literature or exist as commercial systems. Most of them use accelerometers and/ or gyroscopes attached on a person's body as the primary signal sources. These systems use either discrete sensors as part of a product designed specifically for this task or sensors that are embedded in mobile devices such as smartphones. The latter approach has the advantage of offering well tested and widely available communication services, e.g. for calling emergency when necessary. Nevertheless, automatic fall detection continues to present significant challenges, with the recognition of the type of fall being the most critical. The aim of this work is to introduce a human fall and activity dataset to be used in testing new detection methods, as well as performing objective comparisons between different reported algorithms for fall detection and activity recognition, based on inertial-sensor data from smartphones. The dataset contains signals recorded from the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors of a latest technology smartphone for four different types of falls and nine different activities of daily living. Utilizing this dataset, the results of an elaborate evaluation of machine learning-based fall detection and fall classification are presented and discussed in detail.

scholarly journals A Feasibility Study of the Use of Smartwatches in Wearable Fall Detection Systems

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2254
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier González-Cañete ◽  
Eduardo Casilari
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Battery Life ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Battery Lifetime ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Operational Aspects

Over the last few years, the use of smartwatches in automatic Fall Detection Systems (FDSs) has aroused great interest in the research of new wearable telemonitoring systems for the elderly. In contrast with other approaches to the problem of fall detection, smartwatch-based FDSs can benefit from the widespread acceptance, ergonomics, low cost, networking interfaces, and sensors that these devices provide. However, the scientific literature has shown that, due to the freedom of movement of the arms, the wrist is usually not the most appropriate position to unambiguously characterize the dynamics of the human body during falls, as many conventional activities of daily living that involve a vigorous motion of the hands may be easily misinterpreted as falls. As also stated by the literature, sensor-fusion and multi-point measurements are required to define a robust and reliable method for a wearable FDS. Thus, to avoid false alarms, it may be necessary to combine the analysis of the signals captured by the smartwatch with those collected by some other low-power sensor placed at a point closer to the body’s center of gravity (e.g., on the waist). Under this architecture of Body Area Network (BAN), these external sensing nodes must be wirelessly connected to the smartwatch to transmit their measurements. Nonetheless, the deployment of this networking solution, in which the smartwatch is in charge of processing the sensed data and generating the alarm in case of detecting a fall, may severely impact on the performance of the wearable. Unlike many other works (which often neglect the operational aspects of real fall detectors), this paper analyzes the actual feasibility of putting into effect a BAN intended for fall detection on present commercial smartwatches. In particular, the study is focused on evaluating the reduction of the battery life may cause in the watch that works as the core of the BAN. To this end, we thoroughly assess the energy drain in a prototype of an FDS consisting of a smartwatch and several external Bluetooth-enabled sensing units. In order to identify those scenarios in which the use of the smartwatch could be viable from a practical point of view, the testbed is studied with diverse commercial devices and under different configurations of those elements that may significantly hamper the battery lifetime.

scholarly journals Re-Enactment as a Method to Reproduce Real-World Fall Events Using Inertial Sensor Data: Development and Usability Study

10.2196/13961 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e13961
Author(s):  
Kim Sarah Sczuka ◽  
Lars Schwickert ◽  
Clemens Becker ◽  
Jochen Klenk
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
The Real

Background Falls are a common health problem, which in the worst cases can lead to death. To develop reliable fall detection algorithms as well as suitable prevention interventions, it is important to understand circumstances and characteristics of real-world fall events. Although falls are common, they are seldom observed, and reports are often biased. Wearable inertial sensors provide an objective approach to capture real-world fall signals. However, it is difficult to directly derive visualization and interpretation of body movements from the fall signals, and corresponding video data is rarely available. Objective The re-enactment method uses available information from inertial sensors to simulate fall events, replicate the data, validate the simulation, and thereby enable a more precise description of the fall event. The aim of this paper is to describe this method and demonstrate the validity of the re-enactment approach. Methods Real-world fall data, measured by inertial sensors attached to the lower back, were selected from the Fall Repository for the Design of Smart and Self-Adaptive Environments Prolonging Independent Living (FARSEEING) database. We focused on well-described fall events such as stumbling to be re-enacted under safe conditions in a laboratory setting. For the purposes of exemplification, we selected the acceleration signal of one fall event to establish a detailed simulation protocol based on identified postures and trunk movement sequences. The subsequent re-enactment experiments were recorded with comparable inertial sensor configurations as well as synchronized video cameras to analyze the movement behavior in detail. The re-enacted sensor signals were then compared with the real-world signals to adapt the protocol and repeat the re-enactment method if necessary. The similarity between the simulated and the real-world fall signals was analyzed with a dynamic time warping algorithm, which enables the comparison of two temporal sequences varying in speed and timing. Results A fall example from the FARSEEING database was used to show the feasibility of producing a similar sensor signal with the re-enactment method. Although fall events were heterogeneous concerning chronological sequence and curve progression, it was possible to reproduce a good approximation of the motion of a person’s center of mass during fall events based on the available sensor information. Conclusions Re-enactment is a promising method to understand and visualize the biomechanics of inertial sensor-recorded real-world falls when performed in a suitable setup, especially if video data is not available.

Using a Smartphone as a Track and Fall Detector

2015 ◽  
pp. 272-295
Author(s):  
Chia-Yin Ko ◽  
Fang-Yie Leu ◽  
I-Tsen Lin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Emergency Medical Services ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Individual ◽  
Communication Services ◽  
People With Dementia

This chapter proposes a smartphone-based system for both indoor and outdoor monitoring of people with dementia. The whole system comprises wandering detection, safety-zone monitoring, fall detection, communication services, alert notifications, and emergency medical services. To effectively track the elderly, the proposed system uses a smartphone camera to take real-time pictures along the user's path as he or she moves about. Those photos, accompanied with time and GPS signals, are delivered to and stored on the Cloud system. When necessary, family caregivers can download those data to quickly find a way to help the elderly individual. Additionally, this study uses tri-axial accelerometers to examine falls. To assure individuals' data is safeguarded appropriately, an RSA method has been adopted by the system to encrypt stored data. This reliable and minimally intrusive system provides people with dementia with an opportunity to maintain their social networks and to improve their quality of lives.

scholarly journals On the Heterogeneity of Existing Repositories of Movements Intended for the Evaluation of Fall Detection Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Eduardo Casilari ◽  
José A. Santoyo-Ramón ◽  
José M. Cano-García
Keyword(s):  
Wireless Sensors ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Alerting Systems

Due to the serious impact of falls on the autonomy and health of older people, the investigation of wearable alerting systems for the automatic detection of falls has gained considerable scientific interest in the field of body telemonitoring with wireless sensors. Because of the difficulties of systematically validating these systems in a real application scenario, Fall Detection Systems (FDSs) are typically evaluated by studying their response to datasets containing inertial sensor measurements captured during the execution of labelled nonfall and fall movements. In this context, during the last decade, numerous publicly accessible databases have been released aiming at offering a common benchmarking tool for the validation of the new proposals on FDSs. This work offers a comparative and updated analysis of these existing repositories. For this purpose, the samples contained in the datasets are characterized by different statistics that model diverse aspects of the mobility of the human body in the time interval where the greatest change in the acceleration module is identified. By using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the series of these features, the comparison shows the significant differences detected between the datasets, even when comparing activities that require a similar degree of physical effort. This heterogeneity, which may result from the great variability of the sensors, experimental users, and testbeds employed to generate the datasets, is relevant because it casts doubt on the validity of the conclusions of many studies on FDSs, since most of the proposals in the literature are only evaluated using a single database.

scholarly journals Accelerometer-Based Fall Detection Using Machine Learning: Training and Testing on Real-World Falls

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (22) ◽  
pp. 6479
Author(s):  
Luca Palmerini ◽  
Jochen Klenk ◽  
Clemens Becker ◽  
Lorenzo Chiari
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Real World ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
Medical Attention ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Detection Algorithms ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Machine Learning Approach ◽  
Extensive Collection

Falling is a significant health problem. Fall detection, to alert for medical attention, has been gaining increasing attention. Still, most of the existing studies use falls simulated in a laboratory environment to test the obtained performance. We analyzed the acceleration signals recorded by an inertial sensor on the lower back during 143 real-world falls (the most extensive collection to date) from the FARSEEING repository. Such data were obtained from continuous real-world monitoring of subjects with a moderate-to-high risk of falling. We designed and tested fall detection algorithms using features inspired by a multiphase fall model and a machine learning approach. The obtained results suggest that algorithms can learn effectively from features extracted from a multiphase fall model, consistently overperforming more conventional features. The most promising method (support vector machines and features from the multiphase fall model) obtained a sensitivity higher than 80%, a false alarm rate per hour of 0.56, and an F-measure of 64.6%. The reported results and methodologies represent an advancement of knowledge on real-world fall detection and suggest useful metrics for characterizing fall detection systems for real-world use.

Using a Smartphone as a Track and Fall Detector

2016 ◽  
pp. 922-944
Author(s):  
Chia-Yin Ko ◽  
Fang-Yie Leu ◽  
I-Tsen Lin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Emergency Medical Services ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Individual ◽  
Communication Services ◽  
People With Dementia

This chapter proposes a smartphone-based system for both indoor and outdoor monitoring of people with dementia. The whole system comprises wandering detection, safety-zone monitoring, fall detection, communication services, alert notifications, and emergency medical services. To effectively track the elderly, the proposed system uses a smartphone camera to take real-time pictures along the user's path as he or she moves about. Those photos, accompanied with time and GPS signals, are delivered to and stored on the Cloud system. When necessary, family caregivers can download those data to quickly find a way to help the elderly individual. Additionally, this study uses tri-axial accelerometers to examine falls. To assure individuals' data is safeguarded appropriately, an RSA method has been adopted by the system to encrypt stored data. This reliable and minimally intrusive system provides people with dementia with an opportunity to maintain their social networks and to improve their quality of lives.

Effective Falls Detection Method Using Two Tri-Axial Accelerometers

2013 ◽  
Vol 647 ◽  
pp. 854-860
Author(s):  
Gye Rok Jeon ◽  
Young Jae Kim ◽  
Ah Young Jeon ◽  
Sang Hoon Lee ◽  
Jae Hyung Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Detection Rate ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Detection Method ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Detection Systems

Falls detection systems have been developed in recent years because falls are detrimental events that can have a devastating effect on health of the elderly population. Current fall detecting methods mainly employ accelerometer to discriminate falls from activities of daily living (ADL). However, this makes it difficult to distinguish real falls from certain fall-like activities such as jogging and jumping. In this paper, an accurate fall detection system was implemented using two tri-axial accelerometers. By attaching the accelerometers on the chest and the abdomen, our system can effectively differentiate between falls and non-fall events.The Diff_Z and Sum_diff_Z parameter resulted in falls detection rate of 100%, respectively.

scholarly journals Social-aware Event Handling within the FallRisk Project

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (01) ◽  
pp. 63-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Van den Bergh ◽  
Sven Coppers ◽  
Shirley Elprama ◽  
Jelle Nelis ◽  
Stijn Verstichel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Fall Incident ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Event Handling ◽  
Current Guidelines ◽  
The Internet Of Things

SummaryObjectives: With the uprise of the Internet of Things, wearables and smartphones are moving to the foreground. Ambient Assisted Living solutions are, for example, created to facilitate ageing in place. One example of such systems are fall detection systems. Currently, there exists a wide variety of fall detection systems using different methodologies and technologies. However, these systems often do not take into account the fall handling process, which starts after a fall is identified or this process only consists of sending a notification. The FallRisk system delivers an accurate analysis of incidents occurring in the home of the older adults using several sensors and smart devices. Moreover, the input from these devices can be used to create a social-aware event handling process, which leads to assisting the older adult as soon as possible and in the best possible way.Methods: The FallRisk system consists of several components, located in different places. When an incident is identified by the FallRisk system, the event handling process will be followed to assess the fall incident and select the most appropriate caregiver, based on the input of the smartphones of the caregivers. In this process, availability and location are automatically taken into account.Results: The event handling process was evaluated during a decision tree workshop to verify if the current day practices reflect the requirements of all the stakeholders. Other knowledge, which is uncovered during this workshop can be taken into account to further improve the process.Conclusions: The FallRisk offers a way to detect fall incidents in an accurate way and uses context information to assign the incident to the most appropriate caregiver. This way, the consequences of the fall are minimized and help is at location as fast as possible. It could be concluded that the current guidelines on fall handling reflect the needs of the stakeholders. However, current technology evolutions, such as the uptake of wearables and smartphones, enables the improvement of these guidelines, such as the automatic ordering of the caregivers based on their location and availability.

scholarly journals Possible Life Saver: A Review on Human Fall Detection Technology

Robotics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Wang ◽  
Vignesh Ramamoorthy ◽  
Udi Gal ◽  
Allon Guez
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Population ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Severe Injuries ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Detection Technology ◽  
Ambient Systems ◽  
Measure Of Performance ◽  
Privacy Issues ◽  
Current Systems

Among humans, falls are a serious health problem causing severe injuries and even death for the elderly population. Besides, falls are also a major safety threat to bikers, skiers, construction workers, and others. Fortunately, with the advancements of technologies, the number of proposed fall detection systems and devices has increased dramatically and some of them are already in the market. Fall detection devices/systems can be categorized based on their architectures as wearable devices, ambient systems, image processing-based systems, and hybrid systems, which employ a combination of two or more of these methodologies. In this review paper, a comparison is made among these major fall detection systems, devices, and algorithms in terms of their proposed approaches and measure of performance. Issues with the current systems such as lack of portability and reliability are presented as well. Development trends such as the use of smartphones, machine learning, and EEG are recognized. Challenges with privacy issues, limited real fall data, and ergonomic design deficiency are also discussed.

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