抄録
This paper proposes a sensing system for detecting bather's fall. The fall detection system uses ultrasound sensors installed on the ceiling of bathroom to measure the distance between sensor and a bather. The merits of utilizing ultrasound sensor are easy installation and easy use. Moreover the apparatus has an advantage of enhancing the privacy of bathers and having robustness against humidity. In order to detect bather's fall, the proposed system uses the following two methods: status detection and behavior detection. The function of status detection is to estimate bather's postures such as standing and sitting by monitoring the highest part of bather's body. Meanwhile, the function of behavior detection is to grasp the speed of bather's vertical movement by monitoring the change of distance between sensor and the bather. The system estimates the occurrence of bather's fall when the distance changes suddenly. As a result of experiment with some subjects, the system was possible to detect bather's falling behavior with high accuracy.
