Patent ID: 8179268

Claim:
Apparatus for detection of human falls, comprising: an acceleration detector, for detecting vibration events, a microphone, for placing in association with said acceleration detector for detection of sound events, and a classification unit comprising an acceleration input for input of data relating to said vibration events from said acceleration detector and a sound input for input of data relating to said sound events from said microphone, the unit configured to classify separate events from said microphone and said acceleration detector respectively as being concurrent events, and to determine from said concurrent events whether a human fall is indicated wherein said acceleration detector is attached to a floor, said classification unit is configured to extract features from said events, and to compare a distribution of said features with prestored features of learned events, thereby to classify said events as belonging to a human fall or not belonging to a human fall, and wherein said extracted features comprise shock response spectra, Mel frequency cepstral coefficients, vibration event energy, vibration event length, sound event energy and sound event length.