Veteran-built iPhone steadiness tracker to help people avoid falls | Hacker News Reader

Veteran-built iPhone steadiness tracker to help people avoid falls

5 pointsjimlucas953384 comments

Hi HN — I’m a veteran founder working on something deeply personal: helping people (including a lot of veterans and aging adults) stay on their feet longer.

We’re building PinkSteady — an app that uses the iPhone’s IMU data to estimate steadiness and deliver adaptive balance training in short daily sessions.

The problem: Falls destroy independence, cost the healthcare system billions, and most “fall prevention” solutions exist only inside clinics. There are balance exercises online, but compliance is extremely low. We’re trying to make steadiness training simple + habitual + measurable.

Technical challenge: Consumer-grade IMUs are noisy. Gait patterns vary wildly. Most people do not want to strap on sensors or buy devices, so we’re trying to extract useful low-frequency stability features from phones people already have — placed inconsistently in pockets, belts, hand, etc.

We’ve found:

– gravity vector drift matters – window length selection changes user trust – feedback timing affects behavior more than raw scores – older adults ignore alerts but respond to gentle signals

We’re also experimenting with pink-noise audio and subtle cues (vibration or auditory scaffolding) to help people self-correct without scolding them.

What we’d love feedback on from HN:

– thoughts on fusing IMU signals in unconstrained device placement – experiences with vestibular / gait signal modeling – if anyone has insights on adherence mechanics in apps for older populations – ethical considerations in giving people “scores” about their mobility

We just opened a small founding-member cohort to gather usability data and iterate.

Happy to share models, heuristics, failures, and learnings.

Jim Lucas, Co-founder of PinkSteady

Interesting. I (male, 76) never carry my phone except in a shoulder bag. At home, it always lies somewhere (the watch finds it) or on a charger. Out in my rural property, I never carry it because it's steep, (a ridge), slick with tiny dried oak leaves, except in a backpack or camera bag when I am out snapping photos or clearing some trails I created through the brush (which likes to grow back)

The phone reported an uneven stride, which is interesting, because I never carry the phone and Apple said phone and not watch. I got some varicose veins recently, which receded. I know that affected my stride.

Congestion (allergies?) sometimes affects my balance, but I am steady as can be after the congestion goes away, a few days when it hits. Otherwise, it's just the disorder of the home that makes navigation tricky. I am working on that. Tired of stubbing my toes. I am single, so I report only to me, and I am too easy going on myself in this regard (until lately)

I don't know where men carry phones other than myself. I use the shoulder bag or don't carry it around. Women use back pockets, and why don't the phones break? I'm right now sitting with the phone in a front pants pocket and it's uncomfortable. Shirts and t-shirts often have no pockets and if they do, the phone falls out. (you know where).

Well, that's my two cents worth (before pennies are banned). I'm probably an outlier. A typical "walk" on the ridge here involves some climbing, and tests my stability. Few falls, and I always managed to land on the designated glutes.

I'd clear those tiny leaves from the better trails but that would be a monster chore and they'd be right back.

Home will be much more navigable as downsizing and organizing move forward.

You sound like you're doing pretty good for yourself. Take care.

Thanks! It's puzzling that being so far from friends seems to limit both visits (only one outside of family) and electronic communications that just drop.

It's 50 miles to populated cities, friends, stores, and the V.A.

Presence is everything,it seems. I make plans to move to "civilization" (suburbs, my all but 10 years habitat) and then a wild sunrise or sunset happens, with mountain backdrop or a double rainbow with same. But my daughter sent a photo froma Hawaii trip, reminding me that these happen daily "elsewhere".

Think outside the box. Who isn't risk-averse. Last move, we toured affordable places, and visited Paradise CA before here. Nearby Chico had too few listings. After I chose this place instead, Paradise burned to the ground.

An interesting part of suburbs is that there are few or no deer, and they eat rose bushes like candy. I used to grow many, but can't here without massive double fencing. I do miss them.

Looking forward to a less "frontier" lifestyle, and building momentum. It's still a world of people ... somewhere.

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqtAzJ2fNE4&t=439s

Reply on news.ycombinator.com