Mobile monitoring and automatic fall detection device for elderly people living alone

Objective

The global ageing population is growing inexorably and in few years half of the adult population will be over 50. These trends are more significant in developed countries such as EU countries. These trends have several implications: there will be more older people in absolute as well as relative terms, there will be considerably more older "old" people, there will be fewer family carers and there will be a smaller productive workforce to contribute to the financing of health and social services. Concerning this scenario, this project tends to develop an outdoor remote activity monitoring and automatic alert system based on the use of accelerometers to evaluate users mobility and to detect users falls. Falling is one of the most common problems for elderly people, especially those living alone. Actually 30% of the older persons fall at least once a year. There are different alert systems in the market but most of them respond to a users input when pressing a button. The system presented in this project will alert automatically even if the user is not able to move because of injuries suffered during fall, indicating the localisation of the fall by using GSM and GPS technology. Consequences of late assistance are dangerous: hypothermia, dehydration, infections... that in occasions can derive in death. Adding to this, the system will be able to distinguish between static and dynamic movements and send periodically data of users activity via GSM. This information will be analysed by carers determining users well being. Mobility is a subjective quality that indicates users vitality, and well being. The relevance of the project for the SMEs is high since the demand of remote care devices for elderly people is growing exponentially. The lack of reliable solutions in the market brings a great opportunity for care products developers. Moreover, the care market brings new opportunities for SMEs developing new technologies to spread their products to this emerging field.

Fields of science

• social sciences › sociology › governance › public services
• medical and health sciences › health sciences › health care services › eHealth

Programme(s)

• FP6-SME - Horizontal research activities involving SMEs: Specific activities covering wider field of research under the Focusing and Integrating Community Research programme 2002-2006.

Topic(s)

• SME - Horizontal research activities involving SMEs

Call for proposal

FP6-2002-SME-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

FUNDACION FATRONIK

Address

Poligono Ibaitarte, 1
Elgoibar
Spain

Participants (8)

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE

France

Address

Route De Mende Nº 1919
Montpellier

COM Y MEDIA TECNOLOGAS DE LA COMUNICACIN S.A.L.

Spain

Address

Parque Empresarial De Zuatzu, Edificio Ulia, Local 2
San Sebastin

IKNOWHOW INFORMATICS SA

Greece

Address

2 Paramithias Str. Glyka Nera
Athens

INGENIERA DE LA CALIDAD DE VIDA, SL

Spain

Address

Paseo Mikeletegi 56, 3ª Planta
San Sebastian

INSTITUTO GERONTOLOGICO MATIA SOCIEDAD LIMITADA UNIPERSONAL

Spain

Address

Avenida De Zarautz, 123
San Sebastin

NET TECHNOLOGIES LTD

Greece

Address

Alevizatou 19 Papagou
Athens

WANY SA

France

Address

Les Centuries 2 - 101 Place Pierre Duhem
Montpellier

ZENON S.A. ROBOTICS AND INFORMATICS

Greece

Address

5 Kanari Street, Glyka Nera
Athens