How Automatic Fall Detection Works

Taking a tumble when alone is no fun no matter how you try and spin it. The statistics tell us that 1 in 3 people aged 65 or over fall each year in Australia, often requiring hospitalisation. Further, the chances of a successful outcome depend greatly on the time it takes to get the help needed. Lying on the ground with the cockroaches and other creepy crawlies is no fun on its own. Throw in a broken arm or hip and it can be a miserable experience to say the least.

Luckily, the Live Life mobile alarm has a fall detector built in. It’s very good at detecting impact (and/or deceleration) resulting form a fall against a hard object. The way it does this is by using an “accelerometer” which measures movement and deceleration on different axis (x,y & z). When it detects a fall the pendant will announce in a loud, clear voice “Fall has been detected, click the SOS/Heart button to cancel the fall alert sequence”.

This will be repeated twice before sending out ‘fall down alert’ text messages to the programmed emergency contacts and the alarm will then start calling them, unless the fall has been cancelled by the wearer. However, if they’re unconscious or unable to move then they won’t be able to cancel their fall alarm sequence and so the alarm will “do it’s thing”.

Doing it’s thing.
When the alarm “does its thing” I mean it will send a text message to as many as 6 people and will tell them that the wearer of the alarm has fallen over. It shows each person with a mobile phone the wearers location on Google Maps and then starts to call each of the family member and/or friends one by one until someone answers. When someone does answer they can talk to the person who’s fallen because the mobile alarm has a clear 2 way speaker and microphone built in.

Types of falls this is great for:
Trip falls
Falling down the stairs
Car crash
Any sort of impact with a sudden stop

The inbuilt fall detector isn’t designed to activate when one lies down or sits in a chair. It requires significant impact. Even if the fall detector does activate it’s easy to cancel – just “click” the SOS/Heart button to cancel it. Falls like sliding down a wall or slumping into a chair are unlikely to activate the automatic fall detector, however, we’re hoping that in a situation like this the wearer of the alarm can activate the help sequence by pressing the SOS/Heart button. It’s nice to know that we can easily (and remotely) change the sensitivity of the inbuilt fall detection very quickly and at anytime. It can even be turned off completely if it’s not for you.

Our inbuilt fall detection capability in the Live Life mobile alarm is an incredible piece of technology that’s saved many people from absolutely horrible experiences, getting them the help they need fast. It’s not perfect, but it’s very, very good. We’ve a very high expectation that any unbroken fall with impact from 70 centimetres height to the ground will result in an activation. They’re much better odds than no protection at all.

You can read more and watch some videos of fall detection in action on this page.