14 DAY TRIAL // There are already some ways to call for help when you trip and fall, or collapse from a different cause, but there is only so much that a Life Alert can do, so a more intelligent and self-determined solution has been created by a group of German companies.
User-triggered radio devices like Life Alert have two main problems. Or rather, there is a couple of problems with the scenarios when they are supposed to be used.
For one, they can only be activated if the one collapsing still retains some consciousness and ability to move after the fall.
Secondly, seniors, the elderly most likely to need and own one, might be quite forgetful and, well, forget to take it along with them when they go on a walk, with or without their walking stick.
To remove those concerns, a group of German companies have invented the safe@home alarm system, composed of the CareBox main system as well as sensor boxes meant to be mounted on the ceilings of every room.
So, with CareBox as a sort of primary hub, a system involving it and the sensor boxes will know if someone collapses and doesn't recover immediately after.
Each room gets a sensor box on the ceiling, resembling a smoke detector but equipped with acoustic and optical sensors.
If it detects that someone has suffered a fall (it even processes calls for help), it waits for a short while, to see if the user recovers on their own.
If they do not, the box sends a wireless notification to the CareBox main alarm unit, which then phones the one that fell. If the call isn't answered, the emergency service is contacted, as well as family and/or friends.
CareBox does all this onboard, with no cloud access, or other means by which the privacy of the data may be breached.
The ones that collaborated on the safe@home are the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, the BruderhausDiakonie foundation, and tech companies Vitracom and Sikom. A commercial version will debut later this year, and the price won't be known until then.