Patent ID: 9597016
Date: 2017-03-21
CPC Classifications: A61B,G06K,G06T,G16H,G16Z

Claim:
1. A method for determining whether a person has fallen or is at a high risk of falling, and notifying a caregiver when the person has fallen or is at high risk of falling, the method comprising: acquiring depth image data of a person, as the person walks within a particular area, utilizing at least one depth camera of a risk assessment system, the at least one depth camera located in the particular area; receiving the depth image data from the at least one depth camera by at least one processor of a computer-based remote device of the risk assessment system, wherein the depth image data comprises a plurality of frames that depict the person walking through a home environment over time, the frames comprising a plurality of pixels, the remote device located remotely from the at least one depth camera, the remote device comprising electronic memory on which an image analysis application is electronically stored, and the at least one processor structured and operable to execute the image analysis application; segmenting, by the at least one processor, the pixels of the frames of the depth image data; in response to the segmenting, (1) generating, by the at least one processor, a three-dimensional data object based on the analyzed depth image data, and (2) tracking by the at least one processor, the three-dimensional data object over a plurality of frames of the depth images data, wherein the tracked three-dimensional object comprises time-indexed spatial data that represents the person walking through the home environment over time; identifying, by the at least one processor, a walking sequence from the tracked three-dimensional object, wherein the identifying step comprises: analyzing by the at least one processor, the time-indexed spatial data from the identified walking sequence to generate one or more gait parameters; performing, by the at least one processor, at least one health risk assessment based on the one or more gait parameters to determine a health risk assessment score for the person, the health risk assessment score indicative of a level of risk at which the person is of falling; analyzing, by the at least one processor, the health risk assessment score to determine whether an alert incident has occurred, the alert incident indicating at least one of: