Wearable-free wireless fall detection system

Falls among the elderly population are a major concern for public safety since they are the dominant cause of injuries and hospitalization. Nearly a quarter of these falls can result in serious injuries that require immediate medical attention; hence, an external, privacy-preserving and device-free system is required for fall detection. Herein, we investigate the use of radars to monitor human motion and detect falls. This approach has been implemented with the use of a low-cost UWB radio operating between 3GHz-10GHz. The resulting radar data is shown to successfully enable fall detection for a person in a furnished room. This study demonstrates the enormous potential using indoor radars for motion detection, activity recognition, home-security, and fall alert systems.