METHOD FOR DETECTING POTENTIAL FALLS AND A FALL DETECTOR

• US 20140142460A1
• Filed: 04/25/2012
• Published: 05/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Zhang, Wei, Baggen, Constant Paul Marie Jozef, Baldus, Heribert, Ten Kate, Warner Rudolph Theophile, Ouwerkerk, Martin, Schoofs, Anthony Robert Andre
• Application Number:
  US14/114,546
• Publication Number:
  US 20140142460A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/547
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0531 Measuring skin impedance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1102 Ballistocardiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1126 using a particular sensing technique
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/725 using specific filters therefor, e.g. Kalman or adaptive filters A61B5/316 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications

Abstract

There is provided a fall detector for detecting a potential fall by a user, the fall detector comprising a sensor for measuring the skin conductivity of the user; and a processor for analyzing the skin conductivity measurements to determine whether the user has had a potential fall, wherein the processor is configured to analyze the skin conductivity measurements by matching the skin conductivity measurements to a predetermined skin conductivity response corresponding to a stressful event.

Claims

1. A fall detector for detecting a potential fall by a user, the fall detector comprising:

a sensor for measuring the skin conductivity of the user; and

a processor for analyzing the skin conductivity measurements to determine whether the user has had a potential fall, wherein the processor is configured to use a matched filter to match the skin conductivity measurements to a predetermined skin conductivity response corresponding to a stressful event to generate skin conductivity coefficients, the value of each coefficient indicating the match of a respective set of consecutive skin conductivity measurements to the predetermined skin conductivity response; and

to determine whether the user has had a potential fall by analyzing the skin conductivity coefficients.

3. A fall detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to analyze the skin conductivity coefficients to determine whether the skin conductivity measurements are consistent with a user having had a fall by determining one or more of (i) the maximum value of the coefficients, (ii) the mean of the coefficients, and/or (iii) the median of the coefficients.

4. A fall detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to filter the skin conductivity measurements to remove noise and/or interference prior to matching the skin conductivity measurements to the predetermined skin conductivity response.

5. A fall detector as claimed in claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to use a median filter to remove the noise and/or interference from the skin conductivity measurements.

6. A fall detector as claimed in claim 1, further comprising at least one movement sensor for sensing the movement of the user, the processor being further configured to analyze measurements from the at least one movement sensor to determine if the user may have fallen.

7. A fall detector as claimed in claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to analyze the skin conductivity measurements only in the event that the measurements from the at least one movement sensor indicate that the user may have fallen.

8. A fall detector as claimed in claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to use the skin conductivity sensor to measure the skin conductivity in the event that the measurements from the at least one movement sensor indicate that the user may have fallen.

9. A fall detector as claimed in claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to analyze the skin conductivity measurements obtained during a time window following a time at which the measurements from the at least one sensor indicate that the user may have fallen.

2. (canceled)

10. A method of detecting a potential fall by a user, the method comprising:

measuring the skin conductivity of the user; and

analyzing the skin conductivity measurements to determine whether the user has had a potential fall by using a matched filter to match the skin conductivity measurements to a predetermined skin conductivity response corresponding to a stressful event to generate skin conductivity coefficients, the value of each coefficient indicating the match of a respective set of consecutive skin conductivity measurements to the predetermined skin conductivity response, and determining whether the user has had a potential fall by analyzing the skin conductivity coefficients.

13. A method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

sensing the movement of the user; and

analyzing the movement of the user to determine if the user may have fallen.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of analyzing the skin conductivity measurements is performed only in the event that the step of analyzing the movement of the user indicates that the user may have fallen.

15. A computer program product comprising computer readable code embodied therein, the computer readable code being configured such that, upon execution by a suitable computer or processor, the computer or processor performs the method claimed of claim 10.

11. (canceled)

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein analyzing the skin conductivity coefficients to determine whether the response is consistent with a user having had a fall comprises determining one or more of (i) the maximum value of the coefficients, (ii) the mean of the coefficients, and/or (iii) the median of the coefficients.