The WellnessWatch: A Wearable Device Combining Environmental Sensing and Fall Detection

Falls are a major health risk for older adults and post surgical patients and exposure to hazardous environmental conditions like gas leaks or extreme temperatures can further threaten personal safety. The WellnessWatch addresses these risks by integrating fall detection and environmental monitoring technologies to a compact, wearable device to improve personal safety and environmental awareness. The system is built around an ESP32-S3 microcontroller that incorporates an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor to detect sudden motion changes while an additional environmental sensor is used to measure gas concentration, temperature, and humidity. Real time sensor data from the WellnessWatch is continuously processed by the device to identify abnormal conditions that may indicate a fall or a potentially unsafe environment. Fall detection was implemented using a machine learning algorithm and unsafe environments were defined in accordance with healthcare researchers recommendations. If a fall or hazardous environmental condition is detected, the device alerts the user via an onboard buzzer and display. Simultaneously the device transmits the event via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to a custom iOS mobile application providing real-time notifications that allow caregivers to respond quickly to potential emergencies. To mitigate false positives and negatives within the system, there are multiple push buttons on the device which allows users to cancel both fall and hazardous environment alerts, and to initiate a fall event should it go undetected. Accuracy and power consumption was evaluated across multiple machine learning algorithms to determine that ANN (artificial neural network) was the most accurate model with an F1 score of 97% and power consumption of 0.5340 mJ. Experimental results demonstrate that the WellnessWatch successfully detects simulated fall events with 98.36% accuracy, a false positive rate of 2.66%, and a false negative rate of 3.70%. Additionally, the WellnessWatch reliably communicates alerts to the mobile app while continuously monitoring environmental conditions and has a battery lift of roughly 14 hours. The WellnessWatch redefines health monitoring by combining fall detection and environmental sensing into one wearable device, delivering proactive support and enhanced everyday safety for vulnerable populations.