A Wandering Path Tracking and Fall Detection System for People with Dementia

This paper proposes a safety assistant, named wandering path tracking and fall detection system (PTFaD for short), which is a smartphone-based system monitoring people with dementia for both indoor and outdoor. The whole system comprises wandering path tracking and fall detection, safety-zone monitoring, communication services, alert notifications, and emergency medical services. To effectively track the elderly, the PTFaD uses a smartphone camera to take real-time pictures along the user´s path as he or she moves about. Those photos, along with time and GPS signals, are delivered to and stored on the Cloud system. When there is a need, family caregivers can download those data to quickly find a way to help the elderly individual. Additionally, this study uses tri-axial accelerometers to examine falls. When a fall incident is detected, the alarm system issues notification messages to all emergency contact person in sequence until one responds to the system. If no one responds within a pre-determined time period, then the system immediately calls emergency medical services to procure timely help for that elderly individual. To assure individuals´ data is safeguarded appropriately, an RSA method has been adopted by the system to encrypt stored data. The purpose is to guarantee that personal privacy is well protected. Any attempt at unauthorized access to the smartphone or Cloud will not succeed. Our reliable and minimally intrusive system provides people with dementia with an opportunity to maintain their social networks and to improve their quality of lives.