Villa Maria Catholic Homes in HomeGuardian smart device falls trial

Technology developer HomeGuardian has a smart home device that can be used to identify potential warning signs of falls, which will be tested to see how it can be used among aged care residents and allow carers to take preventative action.

The 25cm-tall device's sensors scan a room within seconds of being turned on and learns what all the objects in the room are, and can learn a person's typical behaviours. If the system notices something isn't right, it will alert up to three chosen contacts without the need to press a button, make a phone call or activate an alarm.

Alerts can be sent by SMS message, automated phone call, WhatsApp message, app notifications on Apple iOS or Android, or integrated with nurse call and call bell systems systems for hospitals and residential aged care.

HomeGuardian co-chief executive officer Kane Sajdak said the device scans a room within seconds of being turned on and knows what all the objects in the room are.

"It then also knows what is normal and abnormal interaction between you as a person (it knows people, dogs, cats, furniture, etc) and the objects in your surroundings.

"You sitting in a chair is fine, or laying in a bed is fine. But laying on the floor is a cause for concern, so it will alert the nominated emergency contacts immediately. This can then be extrapolated out to many other behaviours and interactions."

Residents of Villa Maria Catholic Homes in Victoria will be among the 1000 participants taking part in trials.

The project is a collaboration with Deakin University's Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute. It has been supported with a $2.65 million federal government grant provided via Cooperative Research Centres Projects.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, falls result in more than 240,000 hospitalisations and 5000 deaths each year, with 94 per of those deaths happening to seniors.

Mr Sadjak said the technology could help prevent such incidents from happening and take pressure off healthcare and aged care systems.

"Our technology is also designed to free up staff in aged care residences to prioritise care among all residents, rather than respond to falls," he said.

The chief investigator leading the university's research team, Dr Rena Logothetis, said they are trying to predict a fall before it happens, rather than notify caregivers or nurses after it's happened.

"At the same time, because we are collecting a range of data both from nursing staff and from the HomeGuardian monitoring systems, we are also looking at what are the causes of a fall as well as what can be put in place to help prevent falls."

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