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Project

FARSEEING

FARSEEING develops and evaluates technology for preventing fall-related incidents among seniors. Falls are the largest cause of injury among elderly in the western world. More than half of seniors above 80 years old fall at least once every year. In Norway alone there are more than 9 000 incidents of hip fracture every year. This means one hip fracture every hour. Mental, social and economic costs of falls are enormous. In FARSEEING we ask ourselves: Can ICT help prevent some of these falls? What are the best technologies, and what is the effect of these technologies?   
Wearable fall sensor connected to a smart phone.

SINTEF's role in FARSEEING is to develop and evaluate a service for fall detection (FARSEEING covers a number of other areas related to elderly and falls, please refer to project web page in the link to the right). SINTEF and NTNU have been involved in a real world experiment and trial in Trondheim. Around 20 elderly and 5-6 healthcare personnel from healthcare centers Byneset and Laugsand in Trondheim area have been involved in the trial of a fall detection belt during the autumn of 2014. This trial is one of the very few real world trials of fall detection services in the world. The results of this trial will be published during the first quarter of 2015.

Healthcare and welfare technology are strategically central areas of research for SINTEF. In a number of the projects in this area SINTEF ICT cooperates with NTNU and Trondheim Municipality in order to develop and test technology for fall detection and fall prevention. Both NTNU's Department of Neurosciences, Center for Movement Disorders (and thereby St. Olav's Hospital), and Trondheim Municipality see ICT as a potential solution for addressing some of the challenges posed by Norway's aging population. We also cooperate closely with NTNU's Department for Computer and Information Science in developing new prototype technology that is then tested in FARSEEING and other related projects. If you are interesting in knowing more about this project please don't hesitate to contact one of us (See the menu to

Key Factors

Project duration

01/01/2012 - 31/03/2015

Some of the other partners:

SINTEF's role:

  • Development of prototypes.
  • Evaluation of fall detection service in Trondheim.

SINTEF staff involved:

Project web site:

Media coverage:

Funding: