Falls in older adults: Kinematic analyses with a crash test dummy

Falls have always been a frequent and complex problem that might cause fatality, morbidity, loss or damage of body functions and undesired health care needs. The problem is relevant especially for senior citizens and different studies focused on systems for fall detections. This work analyzes the fall kinematics by means of accelerometers placed on head and torso of a crush test dummy used for fall simulations. This configuration reflects the situation in which the subject does not have any voluntary reaction to possible injuries, which is similar to what occurs during elder people fall. Accelerations were measured upon varying the dummy posture; data obtained from accelerometers were compared with those measured with a vision system. The comparison was based on both the peak velocity and on the fall duration. Results showed the compatibility between the data measured with the two methods, outlining the possibility of identifying the peak velocity from videos available on the internet captured, for instance by video surveillance cameras.