KR20090053250A - Personal emergency alarming system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a personal emergency alert method and a system thereof. The emergency situation personal alarm system collects at least one of the user's walking information, behavior pattern, or information on the emergency situation to determine whether the emergency situation, and if it is determined that the emergency situation emergency means for detecting an emergency signal And a server unit for receiving the alarm signal output from the emergency detecting means and outputting an emergency report signal to an emergency contact in response to the alarm signal.

Description

Personal emergency alarming system and method

The present invention relates to a personal emergency alert system, which detects a fall accident that frequently occurs in real life for an elderly person or a pedestrian who is inconvenient to move in real time, and notifies the fall rescue system, thereby actively responding to a second accident caused by a fall. The present invention relates to a personal emergency alert system and a method using a fall detection device through analysis of walking and behavior patterns to prepare for the accident.

In recent years, health care services have been introduced to help elderly people or pedestrians who are inconvenient to live their daily lives in a rapidly aging society.

In particular, the fall rescue service for the elderly living alone or the elderly who have a lot of time to live alone to prepare for unpleasant accidents caused by the fall has been in the spotlight.

An example of the fall rescue system for this purpose is that the fall detection device and its method using the walking and behavior pattern analysis, and the fall rescue service system using the same, which were jointly studied by the applicant and the ETRI (Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0086074, hereinafter 'Preliminary Application'). Fall detection apparatus and method disclosed in the prior application is included in the specification of the present invention, it may be included as a reference of the present invention.

In a system such as an earlier application, a schematic method of falling rescue service through a fall detection apparatus has been disclosed, but it does not provide a filtering method for false fall detection and a method of providing emergency services accordingly.

Accordingly, there is a need for a filtering method for false fall detection and an emergency service providing method.

Therefore, the technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to provide a method and system that can provide an emergency service using the fall detection device.

In addition, the present invention provides a method and system capable of filtering a case where a fall decision detected by the fall detection device is wrong.

The personal emergency situation alert system for achieving the technical problem is to collect at least one of the user's walking, behavioral pattern information, or information on the emergency situation to determine whether an emergency situation, and when determined as an emergency situation alert signal And a server unit configured to receive an emergency situation detection means for outputting the alarm signal output from the emergency situation detection means and output an emergency report signal to an emergency contact in response to the alarm signal.

The emergency detecting means determines whether there is an emergency based on a sensor unit including at least one sensor for collecting at least one of information on a walking or behavior pattern of the user and the data output from the sensor unit. If it is determined that the situation may include a client unit for outputting an alarm signal.

The emergency state detection means collects the data output from the sensor unit, performs at least one of format change, buffering, or filtering of the collected data, or determines whether or not a basic emergency situation and outputs to the client unit It may further include wealth.

The emergency situation detecting means may output an alarm signal when it is determined as an emergency situation, and output the alarm signal when there is no request for releasing the alarm signal from the user for a predetermined time.

The server unit may output a confirmation signal to the emergency situation detection means in response to the alarm signal, and if there is no response to the confirmation signal, may output the emergency report signal.

The alarm signal may include information on the emergency detecting means and information on the position of the emergency detecting means.

The sensor unit extracts a motion acceleration value and a gravity acceleration value by filtering an angular velocity measuring means for measuring an angular velocity value, a 3-axis acceleration measuring means for measuring an acceleration value, and an acceleration value measured by the 3-axis acceleration measuring means. It may include an acceleration extraction means for.

The client unit may include a basic falling database storing the basic falling data vector and a user falling database storing the falling data vector of the user.

At least one of the sensor unit, the gateway unit, or the client unit stores the angular velocity value measured by the angular velocity measuring means, the motion acceleration value and the gravity acceleration value extracted by the acceleration extracting means, in the form of a falling data vector. And a fall determination means for determining whether a fall is made by comparing the falling data vector stored in the queue with the falling data vector stored in the basic falling database and the user falling database.

The client unit may be implemented in a mobile terminal.

The personal emergency alert method for solving the technical problem is that the emergency detection means collects at least one of the user's walking, information on behavior patterns, or an emergency, and whether or not an emergency is based on the collected data. And determining, by outputting an alarm signal to the server unit in case of an emergency, and receiving the alarm signal by the server unit and outputting an emergency report signal to the emergency contact in response to the alarm signal.

The outputting of the alarm signal to the server unit may include outputting an alarm signal when the emergency detecting means determines the emergency situation, and when there is no request for releasing the alarm signal from the user for a predetermined time. And outputting.

The step of outputting an emergency report signal to the emergency contact in response to the alarm signal is the server unit outputs a confirmation signal to the emergency situation detection means in response to the alarm signal and if there is no response to the confirmation signal, the emergency And outputting a report signal. The personal emergency alert method may be stored in a computer readable recording medium.

Personal emergency situation alarm method and system according to an embodiment of the present invention can detect an emergency situation including a fall accident in real time, and can provide emergency services in case of an emergency situation can be actively prepared for accidents It has an effect.

In addition, in order to detect emergency situations frequently occurring to the elderly, in real time and automatically, the small-sized sensor module is developed so that it is easy to wear and there is no inconvenience in life, and the mobile terminal is convenient for the elderly, regardless of place and time. You can live your life in peace and reassure your family.

In addition, it is possible to reduce the possibility of unnecessary emergency services can be provided by the wrong emergency judgment, reduce the hassle caused by the bad emergency judgment, and increase the reliability of the personal emergency alert system.

In order to fully understand the present invention, the operational advantages of the present invention, and the objects achieved by the practice of the present invention, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention and the contents described in the accompanying drawings.

In addition, in the present specification, when one component 'transmits' data to another component, the component may directly transmit the data to the other component, or through at least one other component. Means that the data may be transmitted to the other component.

On the contrary, when one component 'directly transmits' data to another component, it means that the data is transmitted from the component to the other component without passing through the other component.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.

1 shows a schematic structure of a personal emergency alert system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the personal emergency situation warning system according to an embodiment of the present invention may include an emergency situation detecting means 100, 200, and 300 and a server unit 400.

In addition, the emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300) may obtain the position information of the emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300) from the GPS satellite 500.

The emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300) is a means for detecting the presence of an emergency situation by monitoring the walking or behavioral pattern of the user or to measure the changes (eg, ECG or pulse) of various human body As a means, it can be used to include all devices that can communicate with the server unit 400 through a wired / wireless network. That is, the emergency detection means (100, 200, 300) not only can determine whether the fall accident as disclosed in the first application, but also all of the emergency situation that can automatically detect the change of the human body through a predetermined sensor It can play a role in sensing. For example, in the case of an electrocardiogram or pulse rate, the emergency situation detecting means (100, 200, 300) may be determined as an emergency situation when a value below or above a predetermined value is detected according to a user. In addition, the method as disclosed in the earlier application may be used to determine if the fall accident.

The emergency situation detecting means (100, 200, 300) may include a fall detection device disclosed in the earlier application, the following description of the fall detection device disclosed in the prior application as an example, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. Does not. The emergency situation detecting means 100, 200, 300 may include a sensor unit 100 and a client unit 300. In addition, the gateway 200 may be included.

The emergency situation detecting means (100, 200, 300) is an angular velocity measuring means for measuring the angular velocity value, the three-axis acceleration measuring means for measuring the acceleration value, the acceleration measured by the three-axis acceleration measuring means as disclosed in the first application Acceleration extraction means for extracting the acceleration and gravity acceleration values by filtering values, a basic fall database storing basic fall data vectors, a user falling database storing user fall data vectors, measured by the angular velocity measuring means An angular velocity value, a motion acceleration value and a gravity acceleration value extracted by the acceleration extracting means are stored in a queue in the form of a falling data vector, and the falling data vector stored in the queue is stored in the basic falling database and the user falling database. Against the fall data vector It may include a fall determination means for determining whether or fall over. Since the functions of the above components are described in detail in the prior application, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The angular velocity measuring means, the three-axis acceleration measuring means, the acceleration extracting means, the basic falling database, the user falling database, and the falling determination means according to the embodiment of the sensor unit 100, the gateway unit 200 , And may be included separately in the client unit 300 or included in any one. In addition, the fall determination means may be included in any one of the sensor unit 100, the gateway unit 200 or the client unit. For example, all the components of the fall detection device (eg, the angular velocity measuring means, the three-axis acceleration measuring means, the acceleration extracting means, the basic falling database, the user falling database, and the In the case of including the fall determination means, the sensor unit 100 outputs a determination signal indicating a result of determining whether the fall accident to the client unit 300 through the gateway unit 200, the client unit An alarm signal may be output to the server unit 400 based on the determination signal. Alternatively, the sensor unit 100 may perform only a function of collecting data for determining a fall accident, and determine whether or not the client unit 300 falls. In addition, the average expert in the technical field of the present invention will be able to easily create various embodiments.

However, in the present specification, the sensor unit 100 includes the angular velocity measuring unit, the three-axis acceleration measuring unit, and the acceleration extracting unit, and the client unit 300 includes the basic falling database and the user falling database. It will be described taking as an example an example. The fall determination means is based on information collected from the sensor unit 100 or the client unit 300 to any one of the sensor unit 100, the gateway unit 200, or the client unit 300. May be included.

The sensor unit 100 may include at least one sensor, and the sensor may measure the acceleration and the angular velocity according to the movement of the human body as disclosed in a prior application. The sensor unit 100 may be manufactured to be compact in order to reduce wearability and life inconvenience, and may be easily implemented by a user. That is, as illustrated in FIG. 1, an elderly person can easily wear it, and is attached to a wrist or a waist to measure acceleration and angular velocity to collect basic data for determining a fall. The sensor unit 100 may include sensors (eg, a sensor for measuring an electrocardiogram or pulse rate) as well as the determination of a fall, as described in the application, which may measure various emergencies.

The gateway unit 200 may collect data from at least one sensor included in the sensor unit 100, and transfer the data to the client unit 300. The gateway unit 200 may also be easily implemented to be worn like the sensor unit 100. The gateway 200 may manage a variety of sensors by type or function. For example, sensors for detecting a fall may be managed by the first gateway to collect data, and sensors for detecting an ECG may be managed by the second gateway.

In addition, the gateway unit 200 may directly determine the basic emergency situation. For example, if it is possible to easily determine whether an emergency situation is required without requiring much data processing, such as an electrocardiogram value, a pulse rate value, or an acceleration or angular velocity of a specific part of the human body to change above or below a predetermined value, the gateway may be used. The basic emergency may be determined in the unit 200. By enabling the basic emergency situation determination in the gateway unit 200, it is possible to perform the determination of the emergency situation step by step, whereby the client environment (eg, mobile terminal, 300) has a low processing capacity resource environment There is an effect that can overcome (for example, memory).

In addition, the gateway unit 200 collects data output from the sensor unit 100, and outputs the data to the client unit 300 by performing at least one of format change, buffering, or filtering of the collected data. It may be. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the load of processing in the client unit 300, and to change the row data collected from various sensors included in the sensor unit 100 to a specific unified data format, or Buffering of data or filtering of unnecessary data may be performed.

The gateway unit 200 may perform wired / wireless communication with the client unit 300. For example, Zigbee communication can be used.

By providing a separate gateway 200 in addition to the sensor unit 100 and the client unit 300 as in an embodiment of the present invention, limited I / O capability of the existing client unit (eg, mobile phone, 300) It can overcome and use sensors with various I / O.

In addition, without the physical change of the client unit (eg, mobile phone, 300), it is possible to additionally connect the sensors only by the software upgrade of the gateway unit 200 and the client unit 300, the gateway unit 200 for data collection By separating the functions of the client unit 300 for alert transmission and using a unified data format, a plurality of gateways can be connected to one client unit 300, so that an individual emergency management capability can be increased. have.

The client unit 300 outputs an alarm signal to the server unit 400 by determining whether an emergency situation is based on data received from at least one of the sensor unit 100 or the gateway unit 200, The basic alarm signal received from at least one of the sensor unit 100 or the gateway unit 200 may be transmitted to the server unit 400. In addition, even when receiving the basic alarm signal, the client unit 300 may determine whether an emergency situation separately, and transmit the alarm signal to the server unit 400 based on the result.

To this end, the client unit 300 is preferably a device having at least data processing and communication with the server unit 400, it may be implemented as a mobile terminal (for example, a hand phone, PDA, etc.).

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the client unit 300 may include the basic fall database, the user fall database, and the fall determination unit. In addition to the fall accident, another emergency situation (eg, An ECG or pulse rate) may be included.

The emergency situation determination means included in the client unit 300 determines whether it is an emergency situation and, if it is determined that it is an emergency situation, outputs an alarm signal to the server unit 400.

The fall determination means or other emergency situation determination means may have a predetermined criterion for determining whether a fall or an emergency is based on the collected data. That is, the sensitivity of the determination may vary depending on implementation.

There may be errors in the determination of these falls and / or emergencies.

First, there may be false positives in the event of a fall and / or emergency, which can lead to reliability and accountability issues.

Second, there may be cases where a false negative is detected even though the fall and / or emergency is not. In this case, unnecessary resources such as unnecessary emergency rescue services may be wasted and hassle-free.

Therefore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the fall determination means and / or the emergency determination means may increase the sensitivity so as to increase the detection rate as much as possible so that there is no false positive when determining the fall and / or emergency situation. In addition, it can provide a way to filter false negatives.

The alarm signal may include information about the emergency situation detecting means (100, 200, 300) and the position of the emergency situation detecting means (100, 200, 300).

The information on the emergency detecting means 100, 200, 300 may include information that may be used to identify a user who uses the emergency detecting means 100, 200, 300. In particular, the information on the emergency detection means (100, 200, 300) may be a unique number or a telephone number of the mobile terminal, when the client unit 300 is implemented as a mobile terminal.

Information about the position of the emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300) may be received by the client unit 300 from the GPS satellite 500. Information about the position of the emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300) is transmitted to the server unit 400, the server unit 400 information about the emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300) Identify the user based on the location of the user, and transmit information on the location of the emergency detecting means (100, 200, 300), that is, the location of the user in an emergency, to an emergency contact corresponding to the identified user. have.

The server unit 400 may output an emergency report signal according to the personal emergency situation alarm method according to an embodiment of the present invention, or output a confirmation signal to the emergency situation detection means (100, 200, 300).

In addition, the server unit 400 stores user information corresponding to information (eg, a unique number or a phone number of the mobile terminal) of the emergency situation detecting means 100, 200, or 300. Can be stored in Therefore, when receiving the information on the emergency detection means (100, 200, 300) from the emergency detection means (100, 200, 300), it is possible to identify who the user is in an emergency.

In addition, by storing emergency contact information for each user (for example, hospitals and / or the family of the user), it is possible to use the rescue service to the user in an emergency, and to follow up by contacting the guardian, etc. have.

The server unit 400 may be connected to or include a predetermined communication device (eg, a dialing device) for automatically or manually communicating with the emergency detecting means 100, 200, 300 and / or the emergency contact. Of course.

In addition, the server unit 400 may further perform an emergency situation determination by receiving data for detecting an emergency situation from the emergency situation detecting means 100, 200, 300 according to an embodiment. For example, the data collected from the sensor unit 100 is received through the client unit 300, and high data processing capability and resources that are not suitable for performing in the emergency situation detecting means 100, 200, and 300 are required. You can also perform arithmetic operations.

In addition, the server 400 stores the data collected and received from the emergency situation detecting means (100, 200, 300) for each user, and maintains the historical data for each user to provide an effective personal emergency situation alert service. You may.

2 is a schematic data flow diagram illustrating a personal emergency alert method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 illustrates an example in which the sensor unit and / or the gateway unit 100 and 200 and the client unit 300 are implemented separately, and the emergency determination unit or the fall determination unit is included in the client unit 300. . The sensor unit 100 and the gateway unit 200 may be worn by a user in a predetermined form.

Referring to FIG. 2, the client unit 300 may receive data in real time through the sensor unit and / or gateway unit 100 or 200, and determine whether an emergency situation is performed (S100). If the determination result is not an emergency, the client unit 300 performs a general operation without performing the personal emergency alert method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

When the client unit 300 determines that it is an emergency (S120), as described above, the client unit 300 may output an alarm signal in order to filter the case of false negative (S120). . For example, when the emergency determination means included in the client unit 300 determines the emergency situation, the emergency determination means may be an OS provided in the client unit 300 or an personal emergency situation according to an embodiment of the present invention. In order to perform the method, an alarm output request signal may be output to an application separately installed in the client unit 300. The alarm signal is irrelevant to its shape, such as a ring tone, text, or vibration, and any type of signal that may alert the user to an emergency situation unless a specific action (for example, pressing a specific button) is performed. It may be possible.

The client unit 300 may output an alarm signal when there is no request for releasing the alarm signal from the user for a predetermined time (for example, when a particular button is not pressed) (S140). To this end, the client unit 300 receives information on the position from any device capable of knowing the position of the GPS satellite 500 or the emergency detecting means (or the client unit 300) (S130). The received information may be included in the alarm signal. Of course, the alarm signal may include information on the emergency situation detection means.

Then, the server unit 400 may output a confirmation signal automatically or manually to the client unit 300 based on the information on the emergency situation detecting means (S150). For example, the confirmation signal may be a feedback call (S150). In this way, filtering on false negatives may be performed secondarily.

If there is no response from the client unit 300 (S160), the server unit 400 may output an emergency report signal to the emergency contact (S170, S170-1).

Personal emergency alert method according to an embodiment of the present invention can be implemented as a computer-readable code on a computer-readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include all kinds of recording devices that store data that can be read by a computer system. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, hard disk, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like, and also in the form of carrier waves (e.g., transmission over the Internet). It also includes implementations. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. And functional programs, codes and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily inferred by programmers in the art to which the present invention belongs.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order to better understand the drawings cited in the detailed description of the invention, a brief description of each drawing is provided.

1 shows a schematic structure of a personal emergency alert system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic data flow diagram illustrating a personal emergency alert method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (14)

An emergency situation detecting means for collecting at least one of information about a user's walking, behavior pattern, or emergency situation to determine whether there is an emergency, and outputting an alarm signal when determined to be an emergency; And And a server unit for receiving the alarm signal output from the emergency detecting means and outputting an emergency report signal to an emergency contact in response to the alarm signal. According to claim 1, The emergency situation detection means, A sensor unit including at least one sensor for collecting at least one of information about a walking or behavior pattern of a user; And Personal emergency situation alarm system including a client unit for determining whether an emergency situation based on the data output from the sensor unit, and outputs an alarm signal when determined as an emergency situation. According to claim 2, The emergency situation detection means, Collecting the data output from the sensor unit, and performing at least one of the format change, buffering, or filtering of the collected data, or determine the basic emergency situation further comprises a gateway unit for outputting to the client unit Emergency alert system. According to claim 1, The emergency situation detection means, If it is determined that the emergency situation, and outputs an alarm signal, if there is no request to cancel the alarm signal from the user for a predetermined time, Personal emergency situation alarm system for outputting the alarm signal. The method of claim 4, wherein the server unit, In response to the alarm signal outputs a confirmation signal to the emergency situation detection means, if there is no response to the confirmation signal, Personal emergency situation alarm system for outputting the emergency report signal. The method of claim 4, wherein the alarm signal, Personal emergency situation alert system including information on the emergency situation detection means and the position of the emergency situation detection means. The method of claim 3, wherein the sensor unit, Angular velocity measuring means for measuring an angular velocity value; 3-axis acceleration measuring means for measuring the acceleration value; And Personal emergency situation alarm system comprising an acceleration extraction means for filtering the acceleration value measured by the three-axis acceleration measurement means for extracting the acceleration value and the gravity acceleration value. The method of claim 7, wherein the client unit, A basic fall database that stores basic fall data vectors; And A personal emergency alert system that includes a user fall database that stores a user's fall data vector. The method of claim 8, At least one of the sensor unit, the gateway unit, or the client unit stores the angular velocity value measured by the angular velocity measuring means, the motion acceleration value and the gravity acceleration value extracted by the acceleration extracting means, in the form of a falling data vector. And a fall determination means for judging a fall by comparing the falling data vector stored in the queue with the falling data vector stored in the basic falling database and the user falling database. The method of claim 2, The client emergency system for personal emergency situation implemented in the mobile terminal. Collecting, by the emergency detecting means, at least one of a user's walking, behavioral pattern, or an emergency, and determining whether an emergency is based on the collected data; Outputting an alarm signal to the server unit in the case of the emergency situation; And And the server unit receiving the alarm signal and outputting an emergency report signal to an emergency contact in response to the alarm signal. The method of claim 11, wherein the outputting the alarm signal to the server unit, Outputting an alarm signal when the emergency detecting means determines the emergency situation; And And outputting the alarm signal when there is no request for releasing the alarm signal from the user for a predetermined time. The method of claim 12, wherein the outputting the emergency report signal to the emergency contact in response to the alarm signal, Outputting, by the server unit, a confirmation signal to the emergency detecting means in response to the alarm signal; And And if there is no response to the confirmation signal, outputting the emergency report signal. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for performing the method according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

Images