A Wearable Airbag to Prevent Fall Injuries

• Published in: IEEE transactions on information technology in biomedicine Vol. 13; no. 6; pp. 910 - 914
• Main Authors: Tamura, T., Yoshimura, T., Sekine, M., Uchida, M., Tanaka, O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.11.2009
• Subjects: Acceleration; Accelerometer; Accelerometers; Accidental Falls; Adolescent; Adult; air bag; Air Bags; Airbags; Algorithms; Angular velocity; Biomedical monitoring; Cameras; Equipment Design; fall detection; fall prevention; gyro sensor; Humans; Image sensors; Inflation; Information systems; Injuries; Monitoring, Ambulatory - instrumentation; Protection; Senior citizens; Sensor arrays; Wearable; Wounds and Injuries - prevention & control
• ISSN: 1089-7771; 1558-0032; 1558-0032
• DOI: 10.1109/TITB.2009.2033673

We have developed a wearable airbag that incorporates a fall-detection system that uses both acceleration and angular velocity signals to trigger inflation of the airbag. The fall-detection algorithm was devised using a thresholding technique with an accelerometer and gyro sensor. Sixteen subjects mimicked falls, and their acceleration waveforms were monitored. Then, we developed a fall-detection algorithm that could detect signals 300 ms before the fall. This signal was used as a trigger to inflate the airbag to a capacity of 2.4 L. Although the proposed system can help to prevent fall-related injuries, further development is needed to miniaturize the inflation system.