Lamm LIU Bridget CHAN
Marie SHAM Naomi CHU
Jessie LAM
中學組殿軍
A. Introduction
Falls are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the older population, however often overlooked. According to the statistics from the 1Elderly Health Centers in 2012, among 38,000 elders aged 65 or above in the community, 10.5% had experienced falls at least once within 6 months. It can be seen that falling has been a high-risk factor for elderly to get hurt and once they fall, the impact can be unimaginable in both physical and psychological way.
Physically, falls impose huge impacts on the elderly. According to the aforementioned health centre, among those elderly who have the experience of falling, 9.7% have had fractures and remaining ones have been associated with problems in walking. As the metabolism of the elderly is worker slower, recovery for them may require much longer time. In addition, falls can even be fatal if not rescued. Psychologically, some elders would lose their self-confidence after the unpleasant experience about falling before. They may avoid going out due to the fear of recurrent falls, affecting their social life.
On the other hand, the ageing population has become more and more serious in recent years.
According to the 2Census and Statistics Department, the Hong Kong population is projected to increase from 6.8 million in mid-2003 to 8.38 million in mid-2033 with a continuous ageing trend. The proportion of those aged 65 and over is projected to rise markedly from 11.7% in 2003 to 27% in 2033. As elderly have a higher risk factor (e.g. poor vision and balance) of falling compared to other age groups, will cases of elderly falling increases proportionally with the increasing population of elderly? In other words, will more and more people be exposed to the threat of falling?
As the old saying goes, “saving for a rainy day”, our team realizes it is vital for us to tackle this foreseen problem with science and technology, aiming to reduce or even prevent elderly-falling cases. In the following sections, we will introduce our SMART walking aid.
B. Our Idea
According to a research done by the 3Primary Care Office Department of Health, falls in elderly are usually the interplay between intrinsic factors (e.g. muscle weakness), extrinsic factors (e.g.
obstacles in the path) and/or risky behaviour. In other words, in order to reduce the risk for elderly to fall, mechanical support and a sensor to detect obstacles should be given against intrinsic and extrinsic factors respectively. Therefore, our team has come up with the idea of applying new technology to the current walking aid to make the design more sophisticated and more practical to the elderly. This SMART walking aid comprised of a rotary support aid, a micro bit distance sensor together with a buzzer, is introduced to prevent the elderly from falling.
Although there are present fall prevention aids, such as assistive canes and walkers, they are not effective enough to ensure the safety of the elderly as they may not be able to bear the pressure of the elderly when tilted, resulting in the loss of balance of the elderly eventually.
After considering all these potential problems encountered, the walking aid we suggest would include likely:
1. Providing adequate support to the elderly under most circumstances 2. Alerting people around to offer help to the elderly under risk
As shown in the diagram, a rotary sensor with a metal stick attached would be added on both legs of the walking aid. On the other hand, a micro bit distance sensor connected with an Arduino would be placed on the upper handle of the central part. Meanwhile, a buzzer would be attached to the right leg of the walker.
The series of response starts with the micro bit distance sensor. When the elderly falls, he/ she tends to shift her weight forward and place the weight on the walker. Consequently, the walker would tilt forward, and the distance between the micro bit sensor and the ground decreases.
When the aforementioned distance reaches 75 cm, the distance sensor would trigger the rotary sensor to rotate the metal stick to the ground, acting as a support for the elderly and preventing him/ her from falling. At the same time, the buzzer would make a buzzing sound and alert the caretaker beside or even people passing by, reminding them to pay extra attention to the elderly.
It may be questioned that an ordinary walking aid has already had the ability to protect the elderly from falling. However, many of those using the walking aid is often accompanied by a person next to him/ her in case of accidents. Nevertheless, the caretaker may not be able to be around the elderly for 24 hours and there are big chances of accidents happening when the elderly is on his or her own. Even when the caretaker is around, he or she may not pay not be able to pay full attention to the elderly. When the elderly unintentionally add much pressure on the walking aid, they will easily lose their balance. Our proposed new walking aid can ideally solve the former two problems. The buzzer would emit sound to alert people around about the elderly’s situation while the extra metal sticks will help transfer the elderly’s weight, thus prevent the elderly from falling even when he/ she is exerting much pressure on the walking aid.