Exploration and Implementation of a Pre-Impact Fall Recognition Method Based on an Inertial Body Sensor Network.docVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 15338-15355; doi:10.3390/s121115338 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Exploration and Implementation of a Pre-Impact Fall Recognition Method Based on an Inertial Body Sensor Network Guoru Zhao ?, Zhanyong Mei ?, Ding Liang, Kamen Ivanov, Yanwei Guo, Yongfeng Wang and Lei Wang * Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Low-cost Healthcare, and Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1068 Xueyuan Road, Shenzhen 518055, China; E-Mails: gr.zhao@ (G.Z.); zy.mei@ (Z.M.); ding.liang@ (D.L.); kamen@ (K.I.); yw.guo@ (Y.G.); wangyf@ (Y.W.) ? These authors contributed equally to this work. * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: wang.lei@; Tel.: +86-755-8639-2277; Fax: +86-755-8639-2299. Received: 20 August 2012; in revised form: 16 October 2012 / Accepted: 17 October 2012 / Published: 8 November 2012 Abstract: The unintentional injuries due to falls in elderly people give rise to a multitude of health and economic problems due to the growing aging population. The use of early pre-impact fall alarm and self-protective control could greatly reduce fall injuries. This paper aimed to explore and implement a pre-impact fall recognition/alarm method for free-direction fall activities based on understanding of the pre-impact lead time of falls and the angle of body postural stability using an inertial body sensor network. Eight healthy Asian adult subjects were arranged to perform three kinds of daily living activities and three kinds of fall activities. Nine MTx sensor modules were used to measure the body segmental kinematic characteristics of each subject for pre-impact fall recognition/alarm. Our analysis of the kinematic features of human body segments showed that the chest was the optimal sensor placement for an early pre-impact recognition/alarm (i.e., prediction/alarm of a fall event before it happens) and