Hip protector system and method for hip fracture prevention

摘要

An active hip protector system and method for hip fracture prevention are introduced in order to overcome the shortcomings of existing methods of preventing hip fractures; namely: to provide effective impact protection and eliminate false fall alarms. The hip protector system comprises a belt-like pouch, worn over the user's waist, containing airbags which are inflated to a large size ensuring that the user's thighs will not hit the ground upon impact, once the system detects a fall. The pouch contains all of the necessary elements for fall detection and activating inflation of the airbags. Incorporation of distance measurement sensors and cross reference with acceleration and spatial orientation sensors enable reliable detection of impending collision with the ground. The pneumatic system, including the airbags, is carried within the pouch or, alternatively, can be placed in a location that is prone to falling.

主权项

1. A hip protector system configured to be worn around a waist of a user at a waist plane of the user, the hip protector system comprising:
a pouch configured to be worn around a waist of a user, wherein the pouch includes an inflatable airbag; a plurality of proximity sensors configured to measure a distance from the user's pelvis to a point on the ground surface; a gyro configured to provide spatial orientation of the waist plane of the user; an accelerometer configured to determine the vertical acceleration of the waist plane of the user; a micro controller unit operatively connected to said proximity sensors, said gyro, and said accelerometer; wherein the micro controller unit is configured to: receive a vertical acceleration direction from the accelerometer; receive proximity measurement distance signals respectively, from the proximity sensors; receive or compute spatial orientation relative to the vertical direction based on signals provided by the gyro; calculate heights respectively based on said proximity measurement distance signals and said spatial orientation signals; transfer said calculated heights to a height comparator for comparing respective calculated height values from the proximity sensors; filter out shortest height measurements caused by signal reflections from objects that temporarily block the line of sight between at least one of the proximity sensors and the ground surface to determine a true height from the waist plane of the user to the ground surface; and wherein the airbag is inflated responsive to the true height from the waist plane of the user to the ground surface to protect the user.