Wellcore's personal monitoring system puts ZigBee and pattern recognition to work to help protect the elderly.

"I've fallen and I can't get up" is a catch-phrase popular enough to warrant its own t-shirt, but for companies like LifeAlert and, now, Wellcore, the possibility of an elderly relative taking a tumble is no laughing matter. It's no secret that the world's baby-boomers are now part of a rapidly aging generation, one that's quickly passing from middle into old age. As more and more of us approach dotter age, the need for elder-care becomes that much more pressing. According to the Centers for Disease Control, roughly one-third of the U.S.'s over-65 population fall each year, some suffering injuries serious enough to require hospitalization.

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Inside the tiny device are series of motion sensors and a ZigBee wireless transmitter. The sensors track the wearer's movements, can sense a fall and even, according to Wellcore executives, the difference between a fall and any other type of motion. All information is delivered via ZigBee wireless base station, which then sends it to a Web-based caregiver portal where, for instance, a grown son or daughter can track their parents' well being. Wellcore founder, president, and CEO Vijay Nadkarni said he got the idea for the Wellcore System in 2006 when he was looking for a way to monitor his own elderly parents "who are in their late 70's and not getting any younger."

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