Tag: technology

Fall Alert

October 22, 2025

Earlier this week I saw the dogs both laying on their beds asleep and I decided it was time to create some mischief by getting down on their beds between them.  While I do rough house with them, it is generally while I am sitting on the edge of my chair.  Zena plays by turning back and forth while pressing her side against my legs.  She will also use the “power paw” (if you have a dog, you know what this whack is) to get my attention.  Loki’s go-to is to turn his back to me and slam his rear into my legs.  At times he does this so hard it can begin to hurt.  This time I got on the floor and started to roughly play with the two of them.  They got all worked up and began to bark and prance around, Zena pushing in with her side and Loki slamming me with his rear.  That is when I decided to use his tactics against him.  I lowered my head and started head butting him like he did me.  I had been doing this for less than a minute when the AI fall alert went off on my watch.

When I went online, I found AI fall alert systems use technologies like radar, cameras, and sensors to detect falls in real-time and can also predict a person’s fall risk.  Implementation in the US was envisioned in 1973 by Andrew Dibner, a psychologist on leave from Boston University studying personality in advanced age.  Also, in the early 1970’s in Germany, Wilhelm Hormann thought about developing a comprehensive structure for ambulatory and non-ambulatory care for the sick, the elderly, those who live alone, and people with disabilities.  These systems are designed to send immediate alerts to caregivers, family, or emergency services.  Some can even analyze movement patterns to help prevent future falls.  Privacy is often maintained using non-wearable sensors that convert human figures into abstract data.  Vision-based alert systems examine real-time video feeds to recognize fall events.  Radar and sensor-based systems (like my watch) track changes in height and sudden movement (like when a person falls out of bed or to the floor).  When a fall is detected a notice can be sent to the person to confirm or send alerts to pre-determined contacts.  The alerts can be sent via text, email, or to a dedicated app.  In high-risk environments, the system can immediately contact first responders. 

Medical fall alert devices can be a pendant around the neck, a wristband, or a smart watch.  Monitors, motion detectors, or radar-based detectors can also be placed in the home.  Active systems require the user to take some action to trigger an alarm condition, while passive systems monitor the user and raise an alarm based on an algorithm (a fall or lack of activity).  Alert systems can analyze patterns in movement, gait, and activity to identify individuals at higher risk of falling before an incident occurs, allowing for more proactive intervention and personalized prevention plans.  A weakness of active devices is that the user must be conscious to trigger the alarm.  Both passive and active devices require that the user wear the device.  Installed systems can be expensive and difficult to deploy.  My watch alert system detected that I had dropped to the floor (loss in height) and then forcibly hit another object (Loki). 

THOUGHTS: My watch fall alert was an alarm and (thankfully) asked if I had fallen and needed assistance.  This reminded me of the 1989 catchphrase of LifeCall Medical Alert System’s television commercial, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”  The unintentional humor in the commercial made it a frequent punchline.  My watch had the option of having an SOS sent to EMT services or to decline assistance.  This was a timed alert and if I did not respond it would act automatically.  The alert surprised me but seemed like a good idea if it was required.  I never thought I would be the one who had fallen and could not get up.  Human and AI monitoring should be interchangeable to protect those with a possibility of a fall.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

Barriers

February 04, 2025

After a quick 20-hour travel flight (yesterday) we arrived in Athens, Greece.  A tour of Greece and the Greek Isles had been on my bucket list for the last 40 years, so I was excited.  After arriving in Athens, we boarded a bus which would take us to the waiting ship where we would spend the next week.  The bus chaperone pointed out several points of interest as we ‘whizzed by’ amid rush hour traffic, but the drive was mainly accomplished in silence.  As we moved along, I noticed the retainer walls that flanked both sides of the motorway.  The noise barriers were made of metal posts that had clear 10-foot (3 m) inserts, not the concrete sound walls I am used to seeing in the US.  The other aspect that interested me were the bird silhouettes placed on each panel of the noise barrier.

When I looked online, I found noise barriers (also called a soundwall, noise wall, sound berm, sound barrier, or acoustical barrier) are exterior structures designed to protect inhabitants of sensitive land use areas from noise pollution. Noise barriers are the most effective method of mitigating roadway, railway, and industrial noise sources, other than cessation of the source activity itself.  Extensive use of noise barriers began in the US after noise regulations were introduced in the early 1970’s.  Several different materials are used for noise barriers, including masonry, earthwork or berms, steel, wood, concrete, plastics, insulating wool, or composites.  Walls made of absorptive material mitigate sound differently than hard surfaces.  It is also possible to make noise barriers with active materials such as solar photovoltaic panels to generate electricity while reducing traffic noise.  Noise barriers can be effective tools for noise pollution abatement, but certain locations and topographies are not suitable for their use.  Cost and looks also play a role in the choice of noise barriers.  Potential disadvantages of noise barriers can be blocked vision for motorists and rail passengers.  While glass elements in the barriers can reduce visual obstruction, they require regular cleaning, provide an expanded target for graffiti, and create a possibility of bird strikes in the clear barriers

These disadvantages were evident in the barriers along the motorway in Athens.  Environmental noise barriers are common in Greece to reduce noise being emitted from outdoor installations or sources of traffic/railway noise.  Most such projects involve the construction of opaque or transparent noise barriers or even entire enclosures in cases of small/medium-size installations.  Each of the clear glass panels along the motorway had a bird silhouette emblazoned on it.  It took me a while to figure out why these silhouettes were on the panels.  Then I remembered several past blogs where I discussed the problem of bird strikes.  The bird figures warned any birds there was a solid surface, or at least another bird they needed to avoid.  There were a few sections of barriers that did not contain bird silhouettes.  Interestingly, these sections were heavily tagged with graffiti.  While such tags are considered an act of vandalism by some, many display an elaborate style and can often be identified through their uniqueness and methods.

Thoughts: The bird silhouettes and graffiti tags on the noise barriers were both a way of making a presence known.  The creators of the barriers wanted to make their presence known to keep birds from flying into the walls.  The graffiti was an effort by the taggers to let others in the city know they existed, and their presence mattered.  The desire to be recognized seems innate to humans.  It is even more so as we seek to create respect and unity among us all.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.