The Future of Fall and Incident Detection Technology

How can technology help with falls and incidents in the home?

It is every family’s worst nightmare; receiving a call that Mum or Dad has had a fall…

Are they hurt?
Do they need medical assistance?
How bad is it?
Have they been stuck for hours, hurt and unable to call for help?
How can we stop this from happening again?

Fall and Incident Detection Technology

Luckily, fall alert systems for the elderly are becoming more available, giving peace of mind to carers and family, knowing their loved ones can be better protected. But which technology is best?

Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have taken a large step forward, becoming the next big thing in fall and incident detection, and it is causing transformational changes in the level of care available, which is literally saving lives.

Using AI to detect falls and changes in behaviour allows for early detection of any signs in a decline in health. AI can now also monitor mobility levels, changes to emotional wellbeing and sentiment, and when any sign of a decline is detected by the AI, it can send out a warning or alarm. Sounds futuristic, right?

What is AI Technology for Fall Detection?

Using AI, fall detection devices automatically employ unique objection recognition technology to detect and (most importantly) alarm when a person has had a fall or shows signs of declining health. AI can do this automatically, summoning help without any human interaction, calling for help even when the user in need may not be able to. Leading this technology is HomeGuardian.

How Does This Technology Work?

AI technology can detect and alert for falls while also getting assistance when someone who has fallen may not be able to. This technology is applied at companies like HomeGuardian through four main principles – Activate, Monitor, Detect, Alarm.

Once you unbox and set up your new device, the AI system will quickly scan the surroundings and determine what & where every object in the room is, and identify the layout of the room. Then the AI will begin actively monitoring and logging the user’s normal patterns of behaviour.

The AI then uses multiple sensors to monitor the behaviour of the user, the interactions between people and other people, as well as between people and objects and identifies abnormal interactions or behaviours including mobility levels & wandering detection, frequency of coughing, crying, laughing, toilet flushes, etc.

In the event of an emergency, the AI will reach out to the users emergency contacts by sending a text message or phone call within seconds of alarm, to warn the emergency contact it has detected fall or potential risk of fall. Users have the option of using multiple caregivers or emergency contacts.

The Benefits of the New Technology

This newest technology allows fall detection systems to be so much more! Thanks to AI, fall detection systems offered by HomeGuardian , allow for continuous object detection and analysing of a user’s normal interaction with these objects.

Let’s be honest, the home can be a dangerous place. All those hard surfaces and pointy corners. Every year across the UK, there are approximately 6,000 deaths because of home accidents. AI can lower and even stop those deaths from happening. Falls are the most common accidents and can cause serious injury at any time of life, but the risk increases with age. Did you know the cost to society of UK home accidents has been estimated at £45.63 billion annually?

There are nearly 12 million people aged 65 and above in the UK. According to the WHO Global Report on Falls Prevention in Older Age showed that up to 35% of people, aged 65 and over, fall each year in the UK, increasing to up to 42% for those over 70 years of age. The frequency of falls increases with age and frailty level. It’s truly scary when you look at the reality of the situation, but there are real, viable solutions available to you, like award-winning HomeGuardian technology.

There are a variety of different alarms available on the market today and it's important to find one that best suits your particular situation: CCTV cameras, wearables, duress buttons, motion sensors, the options are limitless. However, a person can forget to put on a wearable or charge it, making it hard to reach or use in case of an incident. CCTV cameras are not private, as someone needs to review the footage. AI technology replaces all this.

Thanks to their patented, award-winning AI technology, HomeGuardian can detect and now help prevent falls and incidents around the home . It’s also 100% private and secure which means that the devices don’t store any information, or produce, stream or store any footage or screenshots while monitoring, all while being able to alert a loved one, caregiver, or neighbour immediately if it detects any potential falls or declines in health.

You can find information on the HomeGuardian here on Living Made Easy.

Other Alarms and Monitoring Systems can be found here:

This article has been sponsored by HomeGuardian, specialist in fall alert systems for the elderly

References

https://www.rospa.com/home-safety/advice/general/facts-and-figures

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/ later_life_uk_factsheet.pdf

https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/library/who-global-report-falls-prevention-older-age_en.html

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