ACCELEROMETER BASED FALL PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR THE

ELDERLY PEOPLE

N.N. Baalakumar, S. Shenbagadevi

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,

College of Engineering, Guindy,

Anna University, Chennai-25

nnbaalakumar@gmail.com, s_s_devi@annauniv.edu

Abstract
Falls are very prevalent among the elderly.
They are the second leading course of unintentional -
injury death for people of all ages. In this project we
developed a protection system for the elderly people to
prevent the major injuries when they are falling. This
system is micro controller based protective system. This
project comprises of three major sections like fall
detection, message sending portion and fall protection.
In the first section we are using Tri Axial Accelerometer
to detect the falls. When the fall has been detected the
other two portions like message sending part and fall
protection will be activated. Here we are using GSM
modem to send message to their care givers. And in the
third section we are using triggered airbag to protect
them whenever they fall. So the total fall protective
system will be useful for the elderly person who is living
alone.
Keywords – fall detection, tri axial accelerometer, Gsm
modem, Airbag.
I. Introduction
Falls are a major care and cost burden
to health social services world wide. Falls have
traditionally been recognized as one of the “giants” for
geriatric medicine reflected from the high incidental
falls, common adverse sequeales such as fractures, and
the major psychological impact. These observations
have encouraged the development of fall detection
devices to detect or even prevent a fall event and to
ensure a rapid and efficient help when such an event
occurs [1]. But very few fall detection systems are
yet commercially available today due to lack of
reliability, lack of easiness to install and use or
because people not accept a system found too
intrusive or expensive for instance. The fall is a
very risky factor for the elderly people’s living,
especially the independent living, if often cause
serious physiological injury, such as bleeding,
fracture, and central nervous system damages. If
the emergency treatments are not in proper
condition, these injuries result in disability,
paralysis and even death [2]. And on the other
hand, the fall produces many psychological
problems e.g. fear of movement, worry about
living independent, etc. In order to find the falls
timely and effectively many fall detection
methods have been developed. The current fall
detection methods are basically classified into
three types: video based, acoustic based, and
wearable sensor based system. The video based
system works by capturing the images of human
movement via one or several vidicon, and
determining whether there is a fall occurred based
on the variations of some image features [3]. The
acoustic based system means detecting a fall via
the analyzing on the audio signals. In general, this
method is not in well precision, and is only selected as an of volts which is connected pic controller through
assistant way to the other methods. In the wearable a voltage follower. The output of the PIC 16f877
sensor based system means embedding some micro micro controller will activate an inflatable air bag
sensors are embedded on clothes to monitor the human when the fall is detected from the accelerometer
activities in real time, and find the occurrence of a fall output. This will reduce the fall injuries. If there
based on the changes of some movement parameters. As in no reply from the user side, pre -defined
long as a person wears such a system, he will be messages will be sent to care giver.
monitored anywhere [4]. Because a vidicon is usually
I BLOCK DIAGRAM
installed in fixed locations, but the human body is an
ambulatory object, the wearable sensors based system is
PERSON UNIT
generally more suitable for fall detection than video
based system. Wearable technology is thought of one of Airbag
Activation
the most important technologies on home tele-care and
tele rehabilitation in the near future, since it has the Accelerometer
Micro Data
fixed on the
advantages of the continuity, low - cost, and easy to be controller Multiplexer
subject

used [5]. But for fall detection systems there are two
Reset RS 232
remain crucial problems, namely 1) the people may Button interface

forget to wear the clothes with micro sensors. The fall is

an unexpected event and it usually does not appear GSM modem

frequently and the wearable device may produce some

uneasy feeling and also the people often lower his guard
and forget wear the special clothes or device as time
Fig. 1
passed; 2) The device standard should be selected
between medical device standard and mass market
standard. If the device is made in medical device II. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION
standard, that will be more reliable but higher cost, and
The fall protective system involves the
the other standard means some weakness in reliability
following the hardware components.
but lower cost [6].

A .MODEM
OBJECTIVE

The objective of this project is to give
protection for the elderly people when they are falling in
their home. There are three main stages combined in the
fall detection system namely, signal generating system,
signal processing system and transmitting and receiving
system. The signal generating system is an accelerometer
sensor. The accelerometer output voltage is in the order
The modem will receive a signal from micro
controller about the status of the subject after fall
and send the information to the care taker through
hyper terminal or as a SMS. It is a device that
modulates an analog carrier signal into the coded
information, and then it demodulates such carrier
signal to decode the transmitted information. The
aim is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily
and decoded to reproduce the original data.

B. MICROCONTROLLER

PIC 16F87X is a 40 pin dual inline

package micro controller with a built in A to D
converter, timer and it also accepts the analog inputs.

C. AIRBAG

In the fall detection system inflated airbag is

used for preventing the major injuries when the
accidental fall occurs. Here, we are focusing on the
protection from major hip injuries, because the
maximum falls are happening in the hip region. So when
the elderly people are falling the airbag will be activated
Fig. 2
surrounding the hip region to prevent them major
injuries. III .SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION

D.ACCELEROMETER CIRCUITRY 1. Tri axial Accelerometer (MMA7260Q) to

microcontroller programming.
An accelerometer is an electromechanical
device that will measure acceleration forces. The device 2. Peripheral interface micro controller to
produces a dynamic output during acceleration or modem controlling.
vibration. By sensing the amount of dynamic
3. Micro controller to output devices.
acceleration, you can analyze the way the device is
moving. Accelerometers are widely used in the IV. STEPS IN FALL PROTECTION
automotive industry for crash sensing and airbag SYSTEM
deployment. It is widely use on laptops which retract the
hard disk’s read/write heads in the event they are 1. Pick up the output value of the tri axial

dropped and digital cameras employ them in their image accelerometer, when the person is

stabilization circuits. falling.

2. The signal should be transmitted

without any loss to the micro controller.

3. Analyze the signal using micro

controller.
 4. From the micro controller the signal will be no.121-126.
transmitted to the care giver using modem as
an interface. 6. Najafi, K. Aminian, F.Loew, (2003),
‘Ambulatory system for human motion analysis
5. The airbag will be activated to prevent from
using a kinematic sensor’ IEEE transactions of
major injuries.
Biomedical engineering, Vol.50, Page no .711-
723.

V. CONCLUSION

The prototype model of the fall

protection system will be useful for the elderly people.
The discussion for future work involves the
experimentation of the prototype validation and
miniaturization of the proto type.

VI. REFERENCES

1. M.N. Francis, E.H Tay Matthew Z.E.Meh (2008),

‘Application of motion analysis system in pre-impact fall
detection’ Journal of Bio Mechanics, Vol 40, issue 10.

2. Van den Kroonenbers, A.J., Hayes, W, C., Mc Mahon,

T.A., (1996), ‘Hip impact velocities and body
configuration for voluntary falls from standing height’
Journal of Bio Mechanics, Vol 35, issue 9.

3. U. Lindemann, A. hock, M.Stuber, W.Keck, and

C.Becker (2005) ‘Evaluation of fall detector based on
accelerometer’ Medical and Biological engineering and
computing, Vol 29.

4. M.E. Tinetti (2003), ‘Preventing falls in elderly

people’ Journal of medical engineering, Vol 348, Page
no .42-49.

5. R.Moe-Nilssen and J.L. Helbostad (2004),

‘Estimation of gait cycle characteristics by trunk
accelerometer’ Journal of Bio Mechanics, Vol. 37, Page