Real-world fall events objectively measured by body-worn sensors can improve the understanding of fall events in older people. However, these events are rare and hence challenging to capture. Therefore, the FARSEEING (FAll Repository for the design of Smart and sElf-adaptive Environments prolonging Independent livinG) consortium and associated partners started to build-up a meta-database of real-world falls. Between January 2012 and December 2015 more than 300 real-world fall events have been recorded. This is currently the largest collection of real-world fall data recorded with inertial sensors. A signal processing and fall validation procedure has been developed and applied to the data. About 200 validated real-world fall events are available for analyses, now. These fall events have been recorded within several studies, with different methods, and in different populations. All sensor signals include accelerometer measurements and 58% additionally gyroscope and magnetometer measurements.
The FARSEEING consortium aims to share the collected real-world falls data with other researchers on request. A dataset of 20 selected fall events is now available for researchers on request. Please fill out FARSEEING application form and send it to the FARSEEING database manager: [email protected]. After the approval of your application you will receive a dataset including the fall examples, a description of the fall events and characteristics of the fallers.
Researchers are also invited to collaborate with the FARSEEING consortium on specific research questions and get full access to the FARSEEING meta-database. A scientific board decides about each proposal for collaboration. The consortium does not share data with projects having primarily commercial interests. Collaborative projects between industry and the FARSEEING research group for, e.g. algorithm development and validation are however possible. For more information please contact the database manager: [email protected].
