New Delhi: Scientists from IIIT Hyderabad are developing a low-cost mattress embedded with flexible pressure sensors to detect falls and monitor elderly patients during sleep. Ageing increases the risk of falls, with older people facing the highest chance of death or serious injury from falls, according to the World Health Organisation. Monitoring people during sleep is as critical as the monitoring during waking hours, yet many incidents go unnoticed until the help arrives too late. The project addresses this gap with a mattress topper that requires no cameras, wearables or changes in user behaviour. This is also a privacy-first solution.

The mattress itself will tell you if someone has fallen off the bed. Using an array of flexible pressure sensors, the mattress continuously tracks how a person lies, moves and shifts during sleep. For instance, if there is more pressure at the edge of the mattress, the person may be on the verge of falling. AI models trained on real-world data will be used to distinguish between normal movements from risky ones, allowing for early alerts to healthcare professionals. Beyond falls, the system tracks sleep patterns, bed entry and exit times, frequency of nighttime movement, and prolonged immobility, which is a risk factor for bed sores. The mattress functions as a passive health monitoring tool for elderly care.

Tech being developed for old-age homes

The Project, led by Professor Aftab Hussain won the Young Faculty Research Fellowship (YFRF), a component of the Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme for Electronics and IT. The award supports faculty research to promote research and development, build an innovative ecosystem, and boost India’s edge in IT, with only 50 fellowships planned over the decade, and only 24 awarded so far. The development emphasises affordability and scale for care facilities and homes. The thin-film design captures pressure points accurately. The tech is being developed in collaboration with a nearby elderly care centre that requested the solution.