A new safety and life support system has been developed for monitoring health conditions and daily living activities of solitary elderly people. The system employs a piezoelectric sensor, two low-power active filters, a low-power 8-bit single chip microcomputer (SCM) and a 315 MHz radio transmitter. The body movements produced by respiration, heartbeat, sleep/rest motions, walking and running are detected by the piezoelectric sensor, and the recorded motion signals are inputted to the SMC. If the patient is inactive for 64 minutes, then the SMC detects this emergency situation and informs the patient's family, a fire station or a hospital via telephone. The system is powered by a small 3V lithium battery, which provides 14 days of continuous operation.
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