IRBM 29 (2008) 340–349 General review A proposal for the classification and evaluation of fall detectors Une proposition pour la classification et l’évaluation des détecteurs de chutes N. Noury a,b,∗ , P. Rumeau a,c , A.K. Bourke d,e,f,g , G. ÓLaighin d,e , J.E. Lundy h,i a Team AFIRM, UMR UJF–CNRS 5525, laboratory TIMC-IMAG, faculté de médecine de Grenoble, centre Jean-Roget, 38706 La Tronche cedex, France b Team MMB, laboratory INL, insa Lyon, 69627 Villeurbanne cedex, France c Hospital La Grave-Casselardit, Toulouse, France d Department of Electronic Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland e National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland f Biomedical Electronics Laboratory, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick, Ireland g Wireless Access Research Group, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick, Galway, Ireland h Hospital Cochin, Emergency Unit, Paris, France i Vigilio s.a., Evry, France Received 10 June 2008; accepted 17 August 2008 Abstract Falls affect, each year, tens of million of elderly people throughout the world. It can have immediate lethal consequences but also causes many disabling fractures and dramatic psychological consequences which reduce the independence of the person. Falls in the elderly is thus a major public health problem. The “early” detection of fall consequently raises the interest of searchers, as most of elderly fallers cannot return to a standing position on their own following a fall. It is also an interesting scientific problem because it is an ill-defined process. The goals of this study were to classify various approaches used to detect the fall and to point out the difficulty to compare the results of these studies, as there is currently no common evaluation benchmark. © 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. Résumé La chute est un problème majeur de santé publique qui touche chaque année plusieurs dizaines de millions de personnes âgées de par le monde, avec des conséquences immédiates, mortelles, mais aussi des complications handicapantes, physiques ou psychologiques. Le plus souvent la personne âgée ne peut se relever seule après la chute, aussi faut-il intervenir très rapidement, donc pouvoir détecter cet évènement dans les plus brefs délais. C’est donc un problème qui intéresse les chercheurs et, qui plus est, attise leur curiosité car la chute est un processus mal défini qui s’exprime en une grande variété de situations. L’objet de la présente étude est de clarifier les idées sur ce phénomène en exposant diverses approches contemporaines pour parvenir à sa détection. On montre aussi le défaut de cadre commun d’évaluation. © 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Falls affect each year one in two people over 80 years of age. It thus concerns tens of million of elderly people throughout the ∗ Corresponding author. UMR UJF-CNRS 5525, TIMC-IMAG Laboratory, Research team AFIRM, Faculty of Medicine, University Joseph-Fourier bâti- ment Jean-Roget, 38706 La Tronche, France. E-mail address: norbert.noury@imag.fr (N. Noury). world; approximately 100 million people in developed coun- tries. In this segment of the population, a fall may have lethal consequences. It also causes many disabling fractures [1] and dramatic psychological consequences, which reduces the inde- pendence of the person [2–4]. Falls in the elderly is thus a major public health problem. The fall consequently raises the interest of searchers, and particularly the “early” detection of the fall. Indeed, as most the elderly fallers cannot return to a standing position on their own 1959-0318/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.irbm.2008.08.002