Apple watch and fall detection

B0bbyEwing

Before we start - yes, latest OS versions. 

Now aside from "it hasn't been set up", is there a reason as to why once set up & the person falls wearing an apple watch, it DOESN'T alert someone notified? 

This was one of the reasons we got our mother an AW. 
Found out yesterday that she took a tumble last week. As per, she refuses to accept help, she wants everything kept hush through embarrassment (I.E. I'm not to be told) & all that nonsense. She continuously & stubbornly refuses help but when you ignore her & just help anyway & tell her she's no choice then she accepts it. 

The watch didn't alert anyone though. It was only luckily my brother was in the house & heard all the clatter & went to find out what was going on & saw her on the floor. 

I haven't yet looked at phone or watch so my only thought is that she's been meddling with settings unintentionally, not knowing what she's pressing & has somehow turned it off. 

Outside of that possibility though, is there any other reason? 

Not sure of her mobile connection where she lives. I know it never used to be great many years ago but everything seems to be connected via WiFi these days. 

flaneurs_lobster

Not an Apple Watch user but have a Samsung watch with similar powers.

There's a screed of stuff here https://support.apple.com/en-gb/108896 - assume your mother has an iPhone?

What's obvious is that several settings and options have to be set up before that alert gets sent. Is the watch 4G or reliant on Wi-fi/Bluetooth connectivity?

What might be relevant is that my watch has to be unlocked (PIN code) EVERY TIME it gets put on (it connects to my phone and therefore my emails etc) otherwise all it does is tell the time.

Is the Apple watch similar? Does your mother "sign in" each time it's put on?

Emmia

B0bbyEwing said:

Before we start - yes, latest OS versions. 

Now aside from "it hasn't been set up", is there a reason as to why once set up & the person falls wearing an apple watch, it DOESN'T alert someone notified? 

This was one of the reasons we got our mother an AW. 
Found out yesterday that she took a tumble last week. As per, she refuses to accept help, she wants everything kept hush through embarrassment (I.E. I'm not to be told) & all that nonsense. She continuously & stubbornly refuses help but when you ignore her & just help anyway & tell her she's no choice then she accepts it. 

The watch didn't alert anyone though. It was only luckily my brother was in the house & heard all the clatter & went to find out what was going on & saw her on the floor. 

I haven't yet looked at phone or watch so my only thought is that she's been meddling with settings unintentionally, not knowing what she's pressing & has somehow turned it off. 

Outside of that possibility though, is there any other reason? 

Not sure of her mobile connection where she lives. I know it never used to be great many years ago but everything seems to be connected via WiFi these days. 

Looking at the information linked, if it's set up properly you'll only get an alert as the emergency contact AFTER the emergency services have been contacted. Your mum could also press the button to say she's ok. 

Neil_Jones

Fall detection on anything isn't guaranteed, it may depend on how one falls and whether the impact triggers whatever these devices are looking for.

Even if you deliberately "fall", ie by chucking the device on the floor doesn't mean it'll trigger an alert.

https://www.telecare24.co.uk/blog/accuracy-of-fall-alarm-devices-on-slow-falls/ might be of interest - "Fall alarm devices are generally accurate at detecting falls. However, there are some limitations to their accuracy, especially when it comes to slow falls, low falls, slumps, or crumples"

flaneurs_lobster

Do recall that when I first got the watch I wanted to test out all the features offered (geek thing). 

The Fall Detection thing will only work if the watch is being worn, just dropping the watch from a height won't work. Outside of a martial arts dojo it's not easy to deliberately fall over and not something I'd want to try anyway.

In other words, the functionality is turned on - it's never been tested let alone activated for real.

TadleyBaggie

I have the opposite problem, sometimes when playing golf it thinks I have fallen when I haven't. 

Vitor

Apple Watch fall detection is a useful backstop, not a safety net. It works best for sudden, incapacitating falls where the wearer is unconscious or genuinely unable to respond.

Grumpy_chap

I have a Garmin watch with a similar type of fall / incident detection.  You have to be wearing the watch for it to me active and it then works using rapid deceleration as the primary metric of detecting a fall / incident.  What metric does the Apple Watch use to detect an incident?

The easiest way I have found to test the Garmin device is to vigorously shake the arms as though shaking water off the hands with the rapid swing down and then the hard stop.  That would be similar to the golf swing described by TadleyBaggie I would imagine.

As for why wouldn't the Apple Watch have detected the fall, well, if it works on the rapid deceleration, it is entirely possible to imagine a scenario where someone could fall landing on their torso first and would then bring their arms in under a more controlled way such that the wrist watch never detected a rapid deceleration.

The first thing to do is investigate what instruments / metrics in the watch are being used to detect an incident.

If fall alert really is required, a Careline / Telecare type system with a single big button to press would seem more simple than any kind of smart watch.

GDB2222

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Before we start - yes, latest OS versions. 

Now aside from "it hasn't been set up", is there a reason as to why once set up & the person falls wearing an apple watch, it DOESN'T alert someone notified? 

This was one of the reasons we got our mother an AW. 
Found out yesterday that she took a tumble last week. As per, she refuses to accept help, she wants everything kept hush through embarrassment (I.E. I'm not to be told) & all that nonsense. She continuously & stubbornly refuses help but when you ignore her & just help anyway & tell her she's no choice then she accepts it. 

The watch didn't alert anyone though. It was only luckily my brother was in the house & heard all the clatter & went to find out what was going on & saw her on the floor. 

I haven't yet looked at phone or watch so my only thought is that she's been meddling with settings unintentionally, not knowing what she's pressing & has somehow turned it off. 

Outside of that possibility though, is there any other reason? 

Not sure of her mobile connection where she lives. I know it never used to be great many years ago but everything seems to be connected via WiFi these days. 

Looking at the information linked, if it's set up properly you'll only get an alert as the emergency contact AFTER the emergency services have been contacted. Your mum could also press the button to say she's ok. 

I'll bet £££ that the alarm triggered and mum pressed the button to say she was okay and didn’t want help.

We spent lots of money getting MIL a pendant so she could summon help if she needed it. She simply refused to wear it. 

We bought her a time controlled pill box, and spent ages carefully filling it with all the different pills she needed to take at different times of day. She took the batteries out, because 'it made a noise', smashed the lid, and jumbled up all the different doses, which she then proceeded to take at random, as normal. 

We none of us want to admit that we are getting old and frail, and these gadgets are unfamiliar, perhaps daunting, but above all a constant reminder that we have in fact become old and frail.  Of course, the old dears won’t cooperate. 

elsien

My mother normally casually drops into conversation a couple of weeks after she’s had a fall. Usually in the garden. She only owns up at the time if there is visible bruising. Still working on getting her to take a phone out with her, just in case. 

Couldn’t help but laugh though when she fell over the handrails she had put up on the steps to stop her from falling - when she was trying to paint them, obviously. 

Emmia

GDB2222 said:

Emmia said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Before we start - yes, latest OS versions. 

Now aside from "it hasn't been set up", is there a reason as to why once set up & the person falls wearing an apple watch, it DOESN'T alert someone notified? 

This was one of the reasons we got our mother an AW. 
Found out yesterday that she took a tumble last week. As per, she refuses to accept help, she wants everything kept hush through embarrassment (I.E. I'm not to be told) & all that nonsense. She continuously & stubbornly refuses help but when you ignore her & just help anyway & tell her she's no choice then she accepts it. 

The watch didn't alert anyone though. It was only luckily my brother was in the house & heard all the clatter & went to find out what was going on & saw her on the floor. 

I haven't yet looked at phone or watch so my only thought is that she's been meddling with settings unintentionally, not knowing what she's pressing & has somehow turned it off. 

Outside of that possibility though, is there any other reason? 

Not sure of her mobile connection where she lives. I know it never used to be great many years ago but everything seems to be connected via WiFi these days. 

Looking at the information linked, if it's set up properly you'll only get an alert as the emergency contact AFTER the emergency services have been contacted. Your mum could also press the button to say she's ok. 

I'll bet £££ that the alarm triggered and mum pressed the button to say she was okay and didn’t want help.

We spent lots of money getting MIL a pendant so she could summon help if she needed it. She simply refused to wear it. 

We bought her a time controlled pill box, and spent ages carefully filling it with all the different pills she needed to take at different times of day. She took the batteries out, because 'it made a noise', smashed the lid, and jumbled up all the different doses, which she then proceeded to take at random, as normal. 

We none of us want to admit that we are getting old and frail, and these gadgets are unfamiliar, perhaps daunting, but above all a constant reminder that we have in fact become old and frail.  Of course, the old dears won’t cooperate. 

And we in turn will also not want to cooperate or admit we've got old.