BuddyGuard Review
Unlike the other systems described here, BuddyGuard is a free mobile app that works with a smart phone. In an emergency, it sends an alert to your “assigned buddies” for help. When fall detection is activated, BuddyGuard monitors the accelerometer in your smart phone and sends an alert if the phone is in free fall for more than one second.
It instantly transmits your location to friends and family via email, automated phone call and text message, but not to a monitoring center and not to automatic emergency personnel or vehicles. The website shows the product in use by a man working on a ladder and describes how a person may want their fall recorded and captured by the phone as well as their whereabouts transmitted in case of an accident.
BuddyGuard converts the iPhone into “personal protection device” that relies on the built-in GPS, camera, recording functions to safeguard users. We don’t consider it a viable contender in the arena of fall detection systems for senior citizens. BuddyGuard is from from MPOWER Mobile.
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I hope this “genre” (mobile phone based fall detection apps) matures, as I think it’s promising and accessible. I would love to see reviews of the competitors – iFall, Fall Detector, Smart Fall Detection, Cradar. I am interested in clarification as to why it is not a viable contender – just wondering if it’s a hardware issue (tilt sensors/accelerometers on phones not being up to task) or an issue of software maturity?
One note; the integration into a mobile device helps address the fact that most of the current systems (including Lifeline and Halo) are based around land lines, and so only work in and around the home.