Development of a Smart Measurement System Based on Textile Sensors for Human Presence and Fall Detection

Falls represent a critical public health issue, particularly in domestic and occupational environments where static activities or limited mobility are common, such as in bathrooms or at fixed workplaces. To address the need for early fall detection, this study presents the design, development, and evaluation of a smart mat system based on piezoresistive textile technology. The proposed system embeds six sensing elements (SEs) fabricated using EOONTEX TM conductive fabric, arranged in four regions of a circular mat. Each SE is sensitive to vertical mechanical force caused by body weight or impact. The different instrumented regions are designed to detect human presence, absence or falls. A custom readout circuit based on Wheatstone bridges and low-pass filtering enables real-time voltage acquisition. Data are transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth to a MATLAB-based graphical user interface, which displays signal trends and triggers visual alerts based on thresholding algorithms. Metrological characterization was performed on one SE to evaluate its static and dynamic behavior under controlled loads. The SE showed static behavior consistent with that of piezoresistive sensors and good responsiveness to cyclic loads, confirming its suitability for the intended application. A pilot study was conducted to validate the system's performance in simulated scenarios, including presence, absence, and fall events. The system successfully distinguished between conditions and demonstrated reliable alarm triggering, enhanced by a time-based filtering algorithm. The results highlight the potential of piezoresistive textiles for environmental fall detection and suggest future directions including full-scale prototyping, improved spatial resolution, and robust packaging for deployment in real-world settings.