It’s rare that anyone, including even an MIT computer scientist, is extended an invitation to the Oval Office. Even rarer, still: the opportunity to fall on your face in front of the “Leader of the Free World.”
Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) were part of a select group of entrepreneurs that gave President Obama an in-person demo about their innovation — a device that uses radio waves to detect, predict, and prevent falls among the elderly.
Professor Dina Katabi and CSAIL graduate students Fadel Adib and Zachary Kabelac presented “Emerald,” a system that can monitor breathing, heart rate, and changes in gait and body elevation with such precision that it may soon be able to predict declines in health and increased risk of falling.
Katabi says that every year 2.5 million elderly Americans are treated in emergency rooms because of falls, costing over $34 billion annually.
A more traditional way to try to solve this problem is with wearable technology, but most older people don’t want to have to always wear a special watch or pendant. Instead, Emerald uses one in-home sensor and data analytics to track a person’s movements from the radio waves that reflect off their body, without requiring the monitored person to wear any sensor on their body
If a fall is detected, the device immediately contacts the individual’s caregiver and, after a period of three minutes, calls an ambulance. Similar to a Wi-Fi router, Emerald works even if the person is in a different room than the device.
The technology is based on the CSAIL researchers’ work on “WiTrack,” which uses wireless signals to detect movement and vital signs.
Katabi says that she’s hopeful that the device can help “empower the elderly to live safely and independently,” and is also eager to see whether it may have other key applications in personal health, baby monitors, and even search-and-rescue.
More generally, she says the Demo Day itself made apparent how important it is to promote diversity in the world of innovation and entrepreneurship.
