GPS World, January 2011

Personal Navigation WIRELESS LBS Qualitative Motion Analysis INS GNSS in Care Giving Applications A pocket tracker for elderly people and Alzheimers patients consists of a smartphone using GNSS WLAN RFID and GSM for basic positioning communication channels and an accelerometer triad for collapse and motion detection It seeks to determine not only the quantitative where but the qualitative how has the user lost balance fallen or ceased moving Pere Molina Ismael Colomina Markus Troger Bernhard Hofmann Wellenhof and Carmen Aguilera A ccidents involving senior citizens and handicapped people have increased dramatically over recent years Elderly people especially those with Alzheimers disease often get in situations where they need assistance due to disorientation or after a physical collapse The Infrastructure Augmented Galileo GNSS Receiver for Personal Mobility IEGLO project incorporates seamless indoor and outdoor positioning and emergency call services for healthcare applications Positioning is very important in such applications but this target group has another key requirement 30 percent of elderly people fall at least once per year Furthermore falls are responsible for 70 percent of accidental deaths in persons more than 75 years old 71 percent of falls had physical consequences 77 percent caused broken bones and 217 percent needed medical aid Moreover 64 percent of fallers feared of falling again IEGLO seeks to establish automatic and reliable fall detection through a personal device that can indicate a loss of balance of the carrier This navigation enhancement traditional orientation plus information about the personal behavior has been called qualitative motion analysis QMA System Overview The IEGLO system concept shown in FIGURE 1 consists of three parts a mobile unit with an external sensor unit a communication gateway positioning server CG PS and a service center A commercial off the shelf smartphone with integrated sensors and an RFID transponder represent the components of the mobile unit located at the monitored person The mobile device cannot be fi xed to the body in an precise initial attitude but must move along with the person in order to capture his her movements Distress situations are detectable and alert messages can be generated manually or automatically at the mobile unit The mobile unit includes a GPS receiver able to process assisted GPS data A Wi Fi adapter provides additinal communication when Wi Fi access points are available or if a determined access point is self monitored However the main communication function in the mobile unit is provided by the GSM module Both Wi Fi adapter and GSM module are also used for positioning purposes An orthogonal accelerometer triad is integrated in the device and provides accelerometer measurements For near fi eld communication a Bluetooth interface is available Through it other sensors such as barometers or vitalsigns sensors could be polled FIGURE1 Overview of Infrastructure Augmented Galileo GNSS Reciever IEGLO system concep www gpsworld com January 2011 GPS World 65