Abstract
The matsensors are often used to detect movement of a person who is unable to walk, possibly due to medication or a physical handicap, and requires assistance to keep from falling when trying to get out of bed and a person who might wander the facility unattended. The use of matsensor is critical for elderly persons to avoid injury or broken bones due to falling from bed or to quickly notify the care giver when the individual begins to wander. When the individual stands on the matsensor, it sends notification to the care giver, but if the person should fall, it will not be detected by matsensor. The ultrasonic array sensor has recently been developed which senses the distance and direction between the object and the sensor. We thought that the ultrasonic array sensor could detect when an elderly person gets out of bed by detecting the position of the head. So, we have developed an experimental system to monitor head position by processing the signal output of this ultrasonic array sensor. In our experiment, we placed the ultrasonic array sensor on the ceiling with no furniture and no one around the bed. We used five people in two test situations in which each person got out of bed13different ways; this produced two separate types of data. In conclusion, we estimate the detection rate of head position is98%and getting out of bed is85%.
