Wearable Fall Detection with Location Alert

Industries

Wearable Fall Detection with Location Alert

Problem Statement

Elderly individuals and people with mobility challenges face serious risks when a fall goes undetected.

Most emergency wearables depend on a manual button press, which is not always possible when someone actually falls or loses consciousness.

Families and caregivers had no way to receive automatic alerts or know the exact location of their loved one when an incident occurred.

Existing wearable devices were too bulky, had poor battery life, or were too expensive for everyday practical use.

Our Solution

A lightweight pendant with motion sensors monitors the user's movement all day. A four-stage algorithm checks for free-fall, impact, posture change, and inactivity, triggering alerts only during real falls. The pendant is compact and comfortable enough for all day wear.

Once a fall is confirmed, the response is automatically sent to the paired mobile app. It captures the user's GPS location, sends an SMS with a live location link to caregivers, and makes voice calls one by one until someone picks up, with no action needed from the user at any point.

Insights & Outcomes

Testing across 200 fall events confirmed that the system could accurately detect real falls while filtering out normal everyday movements, keeping false alerts very low. By handling GPS, SMS, and calls through the phone, the pendant stayed small, lightweight, and affordable without compromising on reliability.

The biggest outcome was peace of mind. Families and caregivers can trust that if something happens, they will be notified immediately with an exact location, even if the user is completely unable to ask for help.