Smart carpet using differential piezoresistive pressure sensors for elderly fall detection

Abstract

Falls are events that affect almost every aging human being above the age of 65. These incidents can have major consequences on the physiological, psychological and socio-economical levels. In this paper, a simple smart carpet design is developed to detect falls using a novel sensing technique. Conventional sensing methods use either inertial measurement sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes) or environmental sensors (infrared, force, vibration, acoustic, etc.). The proposed technique employs differential piezoresistive pressure sensors. The prototype of the system is implemented and tested using statistical methods. Experimental results show the sensitivity and the specificity of the system to be 88.8% and 94.9% respectively. The system could be deployed in home care environment as a final product. Our proposed sensing technique can be also integrated in beds to alert patients from falling during sleep.