Accelerometer and fall detection

[giovanemachado]

Hey, can I create a fall detection with Fitbit smart bands? I thought in use the accelerometer and gyroscope to monitoring, and in a simpler calc, estimate if the user has a fall. So, send this data (suppose that I detect a fall) to an Android/iOS app, and there, do some action (maybe call for a relative).

If it's possible, can I do it with which Fitbit devices?

[Gondwana]

The short answer is 'yes'.

The longer answer is 'with difficulty and it depends'. You can only access accelerometer data on the smartwatches (Ionic and Versa series), and not the trackers. I don't think that the more recent smartwatches have gyroscopes either, so check before buying if that's critical to you.

Sending data to an Android/iOS app is difficult, because you can only use WebSockets or fetch() to communicate. This means that your app (or an intermediate service) has to be a server.

[saaasaab]

Yes you can. I built an app that tells you how far you've fallen. The app listens to the accelerometer and calculates the magnitude of all three axis. If the magnitude is ~0 then the app knows you're in free fall and start counting, and when the magnitude of the x, y, and z axis goes back up, it stops counting. From there you can use x=1/2a*t^2 to calculate distance.