Fall Risk Analysis
Falls are a frequent occurrence in elderly population, contributing significantly to injuries and decreased quality of life. However, falls are not an inevitable consequence of aging. A comprehensive assessment of fall risk factors allows to take action in a timely manner in order to avoid the occurrence of future falls. Taking advantage of smartphones, which allow portable and low cost sensing capabilities to more frequently assess fall risk factors and allow a timely implementation of strategies of fall prevention.
Projects
Fall Risk Assessment Tool
The “Fall Risk Assessment Tool” will be able to assist healthcare practitioners on the execution of the fall risk evaluation tests, based on the smartphone built-in inertial sensors, both at seniors’ homes and clinical environments.
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- A Smartphone-Based Fall Risk Assessment Tool: Testing Ankle Flexibility, Gait and Voluntary Stepping
- A Smartphone-Based Fall Risk Assessment Tool: Measuring One Leg Standing, Sit to Stand and Falls Efficacy Scale
- Phone Based Fall Risk Prediction
SmartFeet – ExerGames for Fall Prevention
A general decline in physical function and balance problems make older people more prone to falls. Exercises for balance control, mobility and flexibility are effective strategies for fall prevention, however, older people lack motivation to perform these exercises at home, in a daily-basis.
In the SmartFeet application these exercises are implemented as interactive games, in a user-friendly way. Inertial sensors are used to evaluate the performance of the person during the game as well as his/her movement quality.
Publications:
My Fall Risk Meter – Smartphone-based Personal Fall Risk Screening
“My Fall Risk Meter” project aims to provide the elderly users with the tools to monitor their fall risk factors continuously over time. This tool is meant for a daily-basis, unsupervised assessment of fall risk factors and the feedback on the risk of falling is communicated directly to the elderly user.
The smartphone built-in inertial sensors are used to continuously assess the mobility of elderly users, as they perform their usual daily activities. Specific mobility impairments are assessed using exercises or serious games. Smartphone-based questionnaires are used to assess behavioral and environmental factors.
Age and Illness-related Fall Detection
The delay between the fall and the intervention has been found to be correlated with morbidity and mortality rates. Reliable smartphone-based automatic fall detection and emergency assistance notification are essential to provide adequate care faster, improving the prognosis of fall victims.
Projects
Fall Detect – Smartphone-based Fall Detection
The “Fall Detect”, a smartphone-based fall detection solution, aims to identify dangerous fall events and consequently alert emergency contacts when the user does not recover.
The data from the smartphone built-in accelerometer is continuously screened and upon the detection of a fall event, the user location is tracked and SMS and email notifications are sent to a set of contacts.
Publications:
Assault Detection and Documentation
Field operations management can be assisted using a smartphone-based system with the aim of increasing the safety of field operatives and documenting their activities easily.
Projects
SAFETY – A Solution for Field Operatives and Operations Management
Safety is an operations management solution to support and simplify operations that need to have several operatives widely deployed in the field and a remote operations manager. While having operatives widely deployed on the field, it is difficult for managers to keep updated with real-time information, thus the aim of this solution is to enable operation managers to always have access to the latest information, allowing them to more effectively manage and take timely and informed decisions.
Download PDF FlyerPhysical Activity Monitoring and Falls in Extreme Sports
Smartphones are ideal ubiquitous devices for activity monitoring and to support reliable detection of falls in extreme sports allowing fast post-fall rescue in extreme environment conditions.
Projects
ExerGames – Multi-sensor Interactive ExerGames
The ExerGames project aims at developing interactive games for physical activity and rehabilitation in which the user’s movements are monitored using sensors. The selected approach is to design and implement a framework that is multiplatform and provides all the needed interfaces for the games.
One of the interfaces is specifically for retrieving data from multiple sensors, so that the games are not tied to a specific sensor. The framework already supports a wide array of motion sensors, which are commercially available and low-cost, such as Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion, Orbotix Sphero or even Smartphones.
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Publications:
SmartSurf – Surf Performance Monitoring
Surf performance evaluation is often qualitative. The aim of this project is to analyse the Surf performance quantitatively using inertial sensors.
Mover – Smartphone-based Activity Monitoring
Physical inactivity has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Mover is an application aiming to track all the movements of the user resorting exclusively to the built-in accelerometer from the smartphone. Mover is able to monitor the users’ physical activity, motivating them to become more active.
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