Combining Wristband-type Devices and Smartphones to Detect Falls

This paper presents a scheme that detects falls with a wristband-type device and a smartphone. The user needs only to wear the wristband-type device on one hand, and can place the smartphone not only at multiple positions of the body, but also in a briefcase, a purse, or a backpack. The scheme utilizes the smartphone to collect the acceleration data from the wristband-type device to decide if there is a fall event. If the collected data from the device is merely enough to identify a possible fall event but not sufficient for a positive judgement, it then utilizes the acceleration data from the smartphone to make the final judgement. According to the experimental results, the proposed combined scheme is capable of detecting falls more effectively than those that use smartphones or wristband-type devices alone.