At just 13 years old, Kevin Tan is carving out a place for himself in the world of science and elder care with the goal of keeping his grandmother safe.
A Southern California eighth-grader just won a $25,000 prize and the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist” for his invention of a fall detection device for seniors. This is different from Life Alert and other brands, which offer devices that seniors wear around their necks, in their pockets, or on their wrists. Kevin’s invention, FallGuard, is a camera monitoring system with an algorithm he programmed to identify falls and alert caregivers.
Kevin’s device is not a wearable. Instead, users install FallGuard cameras around their homes and connect them to a small computer to monitor falls.
He works to make his devices available for free, or at least cheaply, to anyone who needs them.
Kevin was always inventing and making “weird things at home,” his father, Yan Tan, told USA TODAY. At first, she didn’t know her son was working on the project, but when Kevin showed it to her, she knew it was a good idea.
Tan was thinking about other friends who were worried about their elderly parents. Regardless of whether Kevin won the award or not, his father told him, “We’re definitely going to build this product to help everyone.”
“It was really scary.” Grandma’s fall sparked a junior high school student’s invention
Kevin said that his grandmother, who lives with his family, had a fall at home about five years ago.
“No one noticed right away, and by the time we found her and called 911, she had permanent brain damage,” he said. “It was really scary.”
Years later, Kevin told me that his friend’s grandfather had also fallen. That’s when he realized how common and dangerous falls were.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older. More than 14 million people, or one in four older adults, report a fall each year, and there are approximately 1 million fall-related hospitalizations among older adults each year. Falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury.
Kevin said developing the fall detection algorithm took time. He was a finalist in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and was paired with mentor Mark Gilbertson to work to make sure the device worked at night.
“He used some AI algorithms to detect your shoulder position and elbow joint, and then he built his own algorithm on top of that to determine when you were going to fall,” Gilbertson explained.
Kevin’s device does not require a subscription, unlike other fall detection systems. And it “always works”.
“You don’t have to remember to wear it,” Kevin said. The grandfather of the friend who fell had a watch equipped with fall detection technology. “But I forgot to charge it the day before, so it tipped over and no one knew until the next day.”
Kevin says it costs about $90 in materials to make one device, but he’s trying to bring that cost down to $30 by using another computer. Since winning the National Science Fair competition, he said at least one surveillance camera company has expressed interest and many individuals have told him they want the device to keep their families safe.
The Tongues now have FallGuard installed in their home, and another family member is also using the device. Kevin has a waiting list of more than 10 other families and hopes to help more families soon.
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