Something in the way she moves: Falls and fractal dimension
William D. Kearns, James L. Fozard, M. Becker, C. Dion, J. Craighead, Jan M. Jasiewicz · Gerontechnology · 2012
Falls are very expensive events, costing the US$19 billion annually1. Standardized gait and balance tests are expensive to perform, have limited predictive capability, and cannot be performed on those who cannot stand or walk. A measure of movement path variability (tortuosity) called fractal dimension (D) derived from ultra-wideband RTLS-sensor data recorded on assisted living facility (ALF) residents has been linked to cognitive decline and may provide a means to link fall risk to cognitive decline2. Increased D provided by the residential RTLS-sensor system may provide ALF-administrators with an early warning mechanism that a resident is at a heightened risk for falls by automatically calculating fall risk from movement variability data