Fall Detection
Use the device's motion sensors to watch for sudden falls and alert with sound and vibration.
Fall Detection watches your device's built-in motion sensor for the shape of a fall: a sudden drop toward the ground followed by an impact. The screen shows every reading live as it updates roughly ten times a second, and when a fall is confirmed the device plays an alert tone and vibrates. It is a monitoring tool that runs while the screen is open — not a background safety service.
Overview
| Reading | What it shows |
|---|---|
| x= | Live acceleration on the side-to-side axis |
| y= | Live acceleration on the up-and-down axis |
| z= | Live acceleration on the front-to-back axis |
| acceleration= | The three raw values together, exactly as reported |
| Pre : | The combined motion magnitude, rounded to two decimal places |
| Status / result area | Where each stage of detection is announced |
Pre is the number that matters. It combines the three axes into a single figure that rises with movement, and it is the value the detection stages are measured against.
Getting Here
- Open the Account tab.
- Open App Settings.
- Choose Fall Detection.
Loading and Starting
| State | What you see |
|---|---|
| Screen opens | Monitoring starts immediately with no button to press; the readings begin updating at once |
| Running | All five readings refresh about ten times a second |
| Readings stay at zero | The motion sensor is not reporting; nothing will be detected |
There is no start or stop control. Opening the screen starts monitoring and leaving it stops.
How Detection Works
Detection runs in two stages, in order. The first stage arms the second.
- Watch for the drop. When the combined motion value falls low enough — the signature of the device briefly falling rather than being held — the app records the moment and announces it.
- Watch for the impact. With the drop recorded, the app watches for a sharp spike. A strong spike is classed as a Hard fall; a moderate one as a Soft fall. Either one confirms a fall.
- Alert. Once confirmed, the device plays its alert tone and vibrates, and the result is announced on screen.
- Reset. If no impact follows the drop within a short window — roughly the next second of readings — the app cancels and resets itself, vibrating once so you know it stood down.
| Stage announced | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Free fall to ground | A sudden drop was detected; the app is now armed and waiting for an impact |
| Soft fall | A moderate impact followed the drop |
| Hard fall | A strong impact followed the drop |
| Fall detected | The fall is confirmed; the tone plays and the device vibrates |
| Cancel the fall to ground because not hit ground detect | No impact arrived in time; the app reset itself and vibrated once |
Each announcement carries the motion value that triggered it, which is useful when you are testing sensitivity.
The single vibration with no tone is the cancel signal, not a fall. It means a drop was noticed but nothing hit — for example when the phone is tossed onto a seat.
Fall Detection only runs while this screen is open and in front of you. It does not monitor in the background, it does not monitor with the screen locked, and it does not notify anyone else. Nothing is sent to your agency, to dispatch, or to a supervisor.
Keeping the Screen Open
Because monitoring stops the moment you leave, turn on Keep Screen Awake on App Defaults before you rely on this screen for any length of time. Without it the device sleeps on its own schedule and monitoring ends silently.
| Setting | Where | Effect here |
|---|---|---|
| Keep Screen Awake | App Defaults | Stops the device sleeping while REDENES is open, so monitoring keeps running |
| Screensaver timeout | App Defaults, shown only when Keep Screen Awake is on | Can still dim the screen after the number of seconds you chose; set it to Off while monitoring |
Reading the Live Values
The numbers move constantly, which makes them hard to interpret until you know roughly what to expect.
| Situation | What Pre does |
|---|---|
| Device resting on a flat surface | Settles near a steady value and barely moves |
| Device carried while walking | Drifts up and down gently |
| Device in genuine free fall | Drops sharply toward zero — this is what arms stage one |
| Device striking a hard surface | Spikes far above its resting value — this is what confirms stage two |
| Device shaken by hand | Rises, but without the drop first, so nothing is detected |
The three axis values are useful for confirming the sensor is alive at all. If x, y and z never change, the sensor is not reporting and nothing will ever be detected.
Testing It Safely
- Place the device on something soft you do not mind dropping onto — a folded jacket or a mattress.
- Watch Pre settle to its resting value.
- Drop the device a short distance onto the soft surface.
- Watch for Free fall to ground followed by Soft fall or Hard fall, then Fall detected with the tone and vibration.
- If only Free fall to ground appears and then the device vibrates once, the drop was too soft to register as an impact — drop from slightly higher, or onto something firmer.
Do not test by throwing the device or dropping it onto a hard floor. A confirmed detection needs a real impact, and the readings are sensitive enough that a short drop onto something soft is usually enough.
Leaving the Screen
Tap the back button. Monitoring ends and the readings stop. Nothing about the session is saved — no history, no log, no record of any fall that was detected.
How This Connects
- Where the data comes from. Entirely from the device's own motion sensor. Nothing is requested from or sent to your agency's servers, so the screen behaves identically online and offline.
- What updates it. Readings arrive from the sensor about ten times a second and are shown as they come; there is no smoothing or averaging beyond the combined Pre figure.
- Nothing is recorded. A detected fall is not logged as a notification, does not appear under Notifications, does not create an incident, and does not alert anyone. Compare that with real paging, which is configured on Notification Settings.
- Motion permission. The motion and fitness permission must be granted for the sensor to report. You can confirm what a device has granted from its detail card on Devices.
- Screen behavior. Depends on Keep Screen Awake and the screensaver timeout on App Defaults.
- Offline and reconnect. Fully functional with no connection. There is nothing to sync when you reconnect, because nothing is stored.
Troubleshooting
| If this happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| All readings sit at zero | The motion sensor is not reporting. Grant motion and fitness access for REDENES in your device's settings, then reopen the screen. |
| Nothing is detected however you move the device | Detection needs a genuine drop followed by an impact, in that order. Shaking alone will not trigger it. |
| The device vibrates once but reports no fall | That is the cancel signal — a drop was seen but no impact followed in time. |
| Free fall to ground appears but nothing follows | The impact came too late or was too weak. Reset happens automatically; try again. |
| No tone plays when a fall is detected | Check the device is not silenced and the volume is up. The vibration still fires even when muted. |
| Monitoring stops after a while | The screen slept. Turn on Keep Screen Awake and set the screensaver timeout to Off on App Defaults. |
| You expected someone to be notified | This screen alerts the device only. Nothing is sent to your agency. Set up real paging on Notification Settings. |
| A fall was detected but you cannot find a record | None is kept. Nothing about a session is saved. |
| Readings look wild while driving | Vehicle motion produces large values. This screen is meant for a stationary or carried device, not a moving vehicle. |
Related Pages
⬅️ Previous: Wi-Fi QR Code | Next: Mobile Data Computer ➡️