The large blue warning signs read “Video recording for fall detection and prevention” on the third-floor dementia care unit of the Trousdale, a private-pay senior living community in Silicon Valley where a studio starts from about $7,000 per month.
In late 2019, AI-based fall detection technology from a Bay Area startup, SafelyYou, was installed to monitor its 23 apartments (it is turned on in all but one apartment where the family didn’t consent). A single camera unobtrusively positioned high on each bedroom wall continuously monitors the scene.
If the system, which has been trained on SafelyYou’s ever expanding library of falls, detects a fall, staff are alerted. The footage, which is kept only if an event triggers the system, can then be viewed in the Trousdale’s control room by paramedics to help decide whether someone needs to go to hospital – did they hit their head? – and by designated staff to analyze what changes could prevent the person falling again.
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