Method for responding to a detected fall and an apparatus for implementing the same

• US 9,892,612 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2014
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Smits, Tine, Baldus, Heribert
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): MORTELL, JOHN F
• Application Number:
  US15/106,065
• Publication Number:
  US 20160321903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

There is provided a method of responding to a detected fall, the method comprising determining which one or two or more actions to perform in response to detecting a fall by a user based on a user profile and/or user preference and/or the context of the detected fall; and performing the determined action.

Claims

1. A method of responding to a detected fall, the method comprising:

determining which one of two or more actions to perform in response to detecting a fall by a user based on a user profile and/or user preference and/or the context of the detected fall, wherein determining which one of two or more actions to perform includes determining whether to ignore a revocation period and initiate a call or request help for the user instead of waiting for an expiration of the revocation period, or wait for the revocation period to expire before commencing a next action, wherein the determining which one of two or more actions to perform is based on at least the user preference, which comprises an indication of a preset length of the revocation period after the detection of the fall before help is requested for the user or the call is initiated; and

performing the determined action; and

performing the determined action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein commencing the next action comprises ignoring the detected fall or checking a status of the user after another revocation period.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile comprises information on whether the user lives alone, the fall risk of the user and/or the fall history of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the detected fall comprises an indication of when the detected fall occurred, the location of the user when the detected fall occurred, the environmental temperature, the magnitude of a detected impact and/or the direction that the user fell.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining further comprises determining which one of two or more actions to perform based on a status of the user following the fall.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the status of the user comprises an amount of movement by the user following the detected fall, an indication of whether the user has stood up following the detected fall and/or measurements of physiological characteristics.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the fall indicates whether the fall has occurred indoors or outdoors, and the step of determining further comprises:

determining whether the detected fall has occurred indoors or outdoors;

determining that help should be requested for the user or the call initiated if the detected fall is determined to have occurred outdoors; and

determining that the revocation period should expire before help is requested for the user or the call initiated if the detected fall is determined to have occurred indoors.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the fall indicates the temperature in the environment in which the detected fall has occurred, and the step of determining further comprises:

determining whether the temperature in the environment in which the detected fall has occurred is below a threshold;

determining that help should be requested for the user or the call initiated if the temperature in the environment is below the threshold; and

determining that the revocation period should expire before help is requested for the user or the call initiated if the temperature in the environment is above the threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining further comprises:

determining whether the user lives alone from the user profile;

determining that help should be requested for the user or the call initiated if the user lives alone; and

determining that the revocation period should expire before help is requested for the user or the call initiated if the user does not live alone.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable code embodied therein, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by a processing unit, the processing unit performs the method of:

determining which one of two or more actions to perform in response to detecting a fall by a user based on a user profile and/or user preference and/or the context of the detected fall, wherein determining which one of two or more actions to perform includes determining whether to ignore a revocation period and initiate a call or request help for the user instead of waiting for an expiration of the revocation period, or wait for the revocation period to expire before commencing a next action, wherein the determining which one of two or more actions to perform is based on at least the user preference, which comprises an indication of a preset length of the revocation period after the detection of the fall before help is requested for the user or the call is initiated; and

performing the determined action.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by the processing unit, the processing unit further performs the method of commencing the next action by ignoring the detected fall or checking a status of the user after another revocation period.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by the processing unit, the processing unit further performs the method of accessing from the user profile information on whether the user lives alone, the fall risk of the user and/or the fall history of the user.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by the processing unit, the processing unit further performs the method of determining when the detected fall occurred, the location of the user when the detected fall occurred, the environmental temperature, the magnitude of a detected impact and/or the direction that the user fell.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by the processing unit, the processing unit further performs the method of determining which one of two or more actions to perform based on a status of the user following the fall.

11. An apparatus for providing a response to a detected fall, the apparatus comprising:

a processor unit configured to;

determine which one of two or more actions to perform in response to detecting a fall by a user based on a user profile and/or user preference and/or the context of the detected fall, wherein determining which one of two or more actions to perform includes determining whether to ignore a revocation period and initiate a call or request help for the user instead of waiting for an expiration of the revocation period, or wait for the revocation period to expire before commencing a next action, wherein the determining which one of two or more actions to perform is based on at least the user preference, which comprises an indication of a preset length of the revocation period after the detection of the fall before help is requested for the user or the call is initiated; and

perform the determined action.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the two or more actions comprise two or more of:

ignoring the detected fall, requesting help for the user, initiating a call, waiting for the expiry of a revocation period before requesting help for the user or initiating a call, and checking a status of the user after another revocation period.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is configured to obtain the user profile and/or user preference from a memory.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is configured to obtain information on the context of the detected fall from one or more sensors.