Gesture4Help

We want to improve the conventional emergency systems since we identified several shortcomings.

Some of them are:
1. non-natural way of alarm triggering
2. many false alarms
3. no classification of alarm severity

For those shortcomings, we suggest the following solutions:

1. use voice or natural gestures as alarm trigger
   
2. double check with user whether alarm is real
   
3. ask user for severity and urgency of situation
   
   

Within this project, step 1 is carried out with a smartwatch. A typical emergency situation is that a person has fallen and is lying on the floor without being able to move. One natural reaction is to knock on the floor or any hard surface in order to get the attention of neighbours.

Step 1 with Smartwatch:

A watch that contains an acceleration sensor and an alarm function to give out an acoustic alarm is used.

The acceleration signal is detected continuously. If a specific pattern is determined, an alarm is triggered. As a trigger pattern, three hits are chosen.

In the recorded test data, three acceleration peaks are clearly visible:

Step 2 & 3 as described in project Voice4Help