Reliable fall detection system using an 3-DOF accelerometer and cascade posture recognitions

An unintentional fall can make injure to elderly. This paper aims to develop a portable and efficient device to monitor the falls in the elderly population by integrating a micro controller, a 3-DOF acceleration sensor, a GSM/GPRS modem and corresponding embedded fall detection algorithms. This system can work well in both indoor and outdoor environments. The human activities can be sensed by the low-cost and low power 3-DOF accelerometer. The acceleration signals are brought to the micro controller to monitor and alert the fall events. The cascade posture recognitions are proposed to enhance the fall detection accuracy by determining if the posture is a result of a fall. If the people fall, an alert message would be sent to their relative or a health center via the GSM/GPRS modem. The experiment device has been tested carefully and it can be applied to real applications for the elderly health.