Medical News Observer

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a method for predicting fall accidents and cognitive illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease by reading a person’s walking pattern with a radar sensor.

It involves the use of a millimeter-wave radar to monitor walking steps in real-life environments for the elderly, with the aim of preventing disease and falls. The proposed method was able to extract gait patterns and showed excellent reliability, with an average accuracy of 96% in measuring step time.

By comparing the millimeter-wave radar to a continuous-wave radar, it was found that the former is better at detecting small gait changes, which is crucial in the early detection of cognitive disorders.

Ref:

1. Zeng X, Báruson HSL, Sundvall A. Walking Step Monitoring with a Millimeter-Wave Radar in Real-Life Environment for Disease and Fall Prevention for the Elderly. Sensors. 2022;22(24):9901. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s22249901
2. Using radar to predict Alzheimer’s disease and fall accidents. https://news.cision.com/chalmers/r/using-radar-to-predict-alzheimer-s-disease-and-fall-accidents,c3725681