How Fall Detection Works

The fall detection pendant is constantly detecting your movements.  The Fall Detection pendant contains tiny sensors that can detect changes in motion, as well as changes in the height of the pendant.   These sensors are sampled up to 100 times per second, and they are monitored in real-time to detect tiny changes in motion that you may make.

The data obtained from the sensors gives us specific information about the user’s motion, such as your gravitational forces (or “G forces”) and moving velocity. This information is analyzed in real-time by LifeFone’s Fall Detection algorithm to determine if the person wearing the fall detection pendant has experienced a motion pattern that indicates a fall.

If the system detects a fall, an alarm will sound.  You will have time to cancel it if you haven’t actually fallen.  The system waits for 20-30 seconds to check for normal movement before sending an emergency fall message before announcing a pending fall alarm.  The base station will then announce a pending fall alarm, and you will see distinctive lights on your fall detection pendant itself.  The system will then wait and 20 additional seconds to allow you to manually cancel a fall alarm. If you’ve activated the alarm by accident, you can press and hold the button on your fall detection pendant button for five (5) seconds to cancel it.  It’s important to cancel a false alarm, because if we don’t hear from you, the alert goes to LifeFone’s emergency response center, just as it would when you press your emergency button for help.