Ngee Ann Poly students' app uses tech, AI to help seniors avoid falls
Traditionally, seniors go to clinics to take fall-risk assessments, where doctors grade their ability to perform physical activities, such as walking. The app, called FallSafe, will allow them to conduct such assessments using their mobile phones.
FallSafe combines Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and cloud-native technology. 'Our idea is to allow the elderly to use their mobile phones, which have gyroscope and accelerometer sensors. These are sensors that they can utilise to capture how they performed,' said 19-year-old Jeffrey Lee, who is part of the team behind the digital solution, which is in its proof-of-concept stage.
The app has two steps – a questionnaire and a physical self-assessment. The assessment can be as short as 15 minutes, and seniors are encouraged to do it every six months to better understand their own bodies.
'We envision FallSafe to be a mobile app that they can download. When they hold it or put it in their pocket, they just need to walk. Based on how the phone moves, we are able to capture how well they performed in their physical self-assessment. We are then able to use those metrics to calculate the risk that the elderly have,' Lee said.
He added that the app aims to provide seniors 'personalised, tailored feedback on how they can improve or maintain their current fall risk'.
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Making it accessible for seniors
Lee said FallSafe is 'among the first consumer-facing applications in Singapore' to explore the use of mobile phones for fall-risk assessments, without the need for specialised equipment or wearables. Previous studies in Singapore that focused on fall detection using gyroscope and accelerometer data relied on dedicated hardware.
One of the biggest challenges was making sure the tech was user-friendly for seniors, said Lee. 'There are so many friction points in an app that to us, it could be second nature, but to the elderly, it is not… Whenever we created a feature, we would share it with our elderly testers and (get their input).'
His team thus worked with welfare organisation Lions Befrienders to test FallSafe on seniors. The app is also multilingual, as it uses Google Translate and can be accessed in any language offered by that platform.
Although there are no concrete plans at the moment to scale the tech as the team members are busy pursuing internships, they hope to eventually continue their partnership with Lions Befrienders to develop the app, and potentially work with other social service agencies and government agencies.
In the long term, the team aims to adopt a social enterprise business model for FallSafe. Any profits made will be reinvested back into the tech for greater impact.
Addressing a 'silent issue'
Accessible digital solutions such as FallSafe are set to become especially relevant as Singapore's ageing population rises. The Republic is set to transition to a 'super-aged' society by 2026, with more than one in five people aged 65 and above.
Lee, along with team members Jovan Ong, Putera Daniel and Kelvin Tan, are slated to win the Outstanding Innovation Team Award on Jul 22 at Ngee Ann Poly's Student Excellence Awards 2025.
Falls are a 'silent issue' that is still 'persistent' and has 'far-reaching consequences' for seniors, said Lee. '(They) are the leading cause of injury-related hospital admissions among seniors. Beyond physical injuries such as fractures and head trauma, they can also cause devastating effects on mental well-being.'
Lions Befrienders said that seniors usually take a fall-risk assessment only after an incident has occurred. With the user-friendly features and accessibility of FallSafe, the team hopes they will be encouraged to take a more pre-emptive approach to the issue.
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