Floor-integrated optical fall detector for frail people

Ronny Maschke; Christopher Taudt; Florian Rudek; Peter Hartmann

doi:10.1117/12.2528148

21 June 2019 Floor-integrated optical fall detector for frail people

Ronny Maschke, Christopher Taudt, Florian Rudek, Peter Hartmann

Proceedings Volume 11059, Multimodal Sensing: Technologies and Applications; 110591A (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2528148
Event: SPIE Optical Metrology, 2019, Munich, Germany

Abstract

In Germany there are millions of people in retirement age which are living alone. Approx. 30% of them come into emergency situation because of a fall once a year. If the fall leads to bone fracture, the person isn’t able to stand off by itself and if there is nobody recognizing the situation, the fall can lead to death. Therefore a detector is developed, which can detect a person lying on the ground and send a signal to a family member in case of emergency. The system is built optically, which makes it insensitive to outer factors like humidity or thermal drifts. Vice versa it won’t apply any electromagnetic radiation onto medical devices situated in the room. The whole system consists of a laser, a material which shows birefringence, two polarizers and a detector. The material covers a big area in the apartment, which needs to be watched by a senor. If the senor is under strain, the polarization of the light will change its direction while passing the material and the system will measure an increase of light intensity after the 2nd polarizer. To discriminate an emergency from normal everyday situation, an algorithm is implemented, which asks for three steps to be positive ere the system triggers a signal. If the system has access to an already existing smart home-system, a signal can be activated to inform the person’s next relatives or even an emergency service. The systems works best, if the apartment is built newly

Citation Download Citation

Ronny Maschke, Christopher Taudt, Florian Rudek, and Peter Hartmann "Floor-integrated optical fall detector for frail people", Proc. SPIE 11059, Multimodal Sensing: Technologies and Applications, 110591A (21 June 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2528148

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