[SINGAPORE] A group of students at NGEE Ann Polytechnic is looking to develop a mobile app that will allow seniors to perform fall risk assessments independently from the comfort of their homes.
Traditionally, older people go to the clinic and get a fall risk assessment. There, doctors evaluate their ability to carry out physical activities such as walking. This app, called Fallsafe, allows you to perform such assessments using your phone.
Fallsafe combines the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and cloud-native technology.
“Our idea is to enable older people to use mobile phones with gyroscopes and accelerometer sensors. These are the sensors available to capture how performance is.”
This app has two steps: surveys and physical self-assessment. The rating can be just 15 minutes, and it is recommended that older people do it every six months to better understand their body.
“I assume Fallsafe is a mobile app that you can download. When you hold it or put it in your pocket, you just have to walk. Based on the movements of your phone, you can see how well it worked in your physical self-assessment.
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He added that the app aims to provide seniors with “personalized, tailored feedback on how to improve or maintain current fall risks.”
Make it accessible to seniors
Lee said Fallsafe is “one of Singapore's first consumer applications,” and will explore using mobile phones for fall risk assessments without the need for specialized equipment or wearables. Previous studies in Singapore focusing on fall detection using gyroscopes and accelerometer data relied on dedicated hardware.
One of the biggest challenges was making sure the technology is user-friendly for older people, Lee said. “There are so many friction points in the app, and it can be a second nature for us, but not for the elderly… Whenever we create a feature, we share it with an older tester and (get input).”
His team worked with Lions Befriends from the welfare organization to test out his senior Fallsafe. The app also uses Google Translation and is multilingual as it is accessible in any language it offers.
As team members are busy pursuing internships, there are no specific plans to scale their technology, but they hope to continue partnering with Lions BeeFriends to develop the app and work with other social services and government agencies.
In the long run, the team aims to adopt Fallsafe's social enterprise business model. The profits obtained will be reinvested in technology for greater impact.
Addressing the “silent issue”
Accessible digital solutions such as Fallsafe are set to be particularly relevant as Singapore's aging population grows. The Republic is set to transition into a “superaging” society by 2026, with more than one in five people over the age of 65.
Lee, along with team members Jovan Ong, Putera Daniel and Kelvin Tan, will be awarded the Outstanding Innovation Team Award at NGEE Ann Poly's Student Excellence Awards 2025 on July 22nd.
Falls are “quiet problems,” and still “sustainable,” and have “wide-reaching consequences” for older adults, Lee said. “(They) are the main causes of injuries-related hospitalizations among older adults. Beyond physical injuries such as fractures and head injuries, they can have devastating effects on mental well-being.”
A friend of the Lions said seniors are usually evaluated for fall risk only after an incident occurs. Fallsafe's user-friendly features and accessibility encourage teams to take a more preemptive approach to this issue.
