Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good. Third International Conference, GOODTECHS 2017, Pisa, Italy, November 29-30, 2017, Proceedings

Research Article

Fall Detection with Kinect in Top View: Preliminary Features Analysis and Characterization

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-319-76111-4_16,
        author={Susanna Spinsante and Manola Ricciuti and Enea Cippitelli and Ennio Gambi},
        title={Fall Detection with Kinect in Top View: Preliminary Features Analysis and Characterization},
        proceedings={Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good. Third International Conference, GOODTECHS 2017, Pisa, Italy, November 29-30, 2017, Proceedings},
        proceedings_a={GOODTECHS},
        year={2018},
        month={3},
        keywords={Fall detection Depth image processing Blob Features Speed of falling},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-319-76111-4_16}
    }
    
  • Susanna Spinsante
    Manola Ricciuti
    Enea Cippitelli
    Ennio Gambi
    Year: 2018
    Fall Detection with Kinect in Top View: Preliminary Features Analysis and Characterization
    GOODTECHS
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-76111-4_16
Susanna Spinsante1,*, Manola Ricciuti1, Enea Cippitelli1, Ennio Gambi1
  • 1: Università Politecnica delle Marche
*Contact email: s.spinsante@staff.univpm.it

Abstract

Fall detection is a well investigated research area, for which different solutions have been designed, based on wearable or ambient sensors. Depth sensors, like Kinect, located in front view with respect to the monitored subject, are able to provide the human skeleton through the automatic identification of body joints, and are typically used for their unobtrusiveness and inherent privacy-preserving capability. This paper aims to analyze depth signals captured from a Kinect used in top view, to extract useful features for the automatic identification of falls, despite the unavailability of joints and skeleton data. This study, based on a set of signals captured over a number of test users performing different types of falls and activities, shows that the speed of falling computed over the blob identifying the person, extracted from the depth images, should be used as a feature to spot fall events in conjunction with other metrics, for a better reliability.