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Ambulatory system for measuring and monitoring physical activity and risk of falling and for automatic fall detection

  • US 9,005,141 B1
  • Filed: 06/22/2012
  • Issued: 04/14/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2007
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A body movement monitoring system comprising:

  • a data processing system comprising one or more processor circuits, said data processing system configured to process acceleration measurements generated by a sensor, the sensor adapted to be attached to an upper part of a body of a person and comprising at least one accelerometer component adapted to generate one or more acceleration signals in response to movement of the body, the data processing system programmed to;

    apply a filter to at least a portion of at least one of the one or more acceleration signals to obtain one or more filtered signals;

    determine an estimated postural transition duration for a postural transition based at least partly on one or more peaks in the one or more filtered signals;

    derive information related to the postural transition using the estimated postural transition duration, the information including at least one of;

    time of occurrence of the postural transition, duration of the postural transition, or type of the postural transition;

    apply a filter to a vertical accelerometer signal of the one or more acceleration signals for a time period corresponding to said duration of said postural transition, to obtain a filtered vertical acceleration signal;

    compute a gradient of the filtered vertical acceleration signal to obtain a gradient signal;

    identify a global extremum of said gradient signal;

    if the magnitude of the global extremum exceeds a threshold value, compare a first portion of the filtered vertical acceleration signal that precedes the global extremum to a second portion of the filtered vertical acceleration signal that is subsequent to the global extremum;

    if said comparison yields a first result, identify a lying posture; and

    if said comparison yields a second result, identify a transition from said lying posture.

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