Signal 5: Protect Old People Away from Falling
According to Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), falls are leading cause of injury and death in older Americans. While with more than 10,000 older Americans turning 65 each day, the number of fall-related injuries and deaths is expected to surge (“CDC Press Releases”, 2018). Thus, falling is a serious problem for courtiers, especially those have aging population demographic. How can we use new technologies to protect people? After researching for decades, Gait Up seems find the solutions.
By combining inertial sensors and powerful signal processing algorithm, Gait Up technology can sense and analyze 3D movement signatures. Then, specific outcome parameters from different activities can be provided and interpreted with clear data visualization, indicating the performance or disability. Professionals can help people to move better and safer before something wrong happened. For example, they can active monitor old people’s daily life by testing type, intensity, duration and sequence of activities (such as walk or sit) to better understand their daily life and find abnormalities in advance. The sensor also can be put in trunk, belt, thigh, foot, wrist and bicep to get detailed data in that body parts.
Personally, I feel continuously monitoring old people’s daily data is a fantastic method, since falling factors such as lose balance or visual problem are always happened minor and gradually. However, most old people don’t like wear wearable devices, so how to encourage elderly carry the sensors without uncomfortable is a problem that needs to address. In addition, those technologies can more focus on helping special group like people who had stroke or Parkinson, which will benefit the society a lot.
Reference: CDC Press Releases. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0922-older-adult-falls.html
