Fall detection false trigger

She claims that the software in the watch is "learning" my movements and should improve over time.

Apparently she is correct. I had a false alarm today and the screen gave me two choices. 1) I fell but I'm OK and 2) I did not fall. Presumably the second choice allows the Watch to learn.

I don't think you're having a hardware problem at all. I think Apple's "fall detection" just isn't close to being ready for prime time. I'm totally disgusted with the feature.

I've got a friend with Parkinsons. His hands shake. He regularly gets a false fall detection just from hand shake, but since he has the watch has actually fallen hard four times and when he fell the watch didn't detect any of them.

My Apple Watch has given me several dozen false alarms. Any time I clap my hands together hard over my head at a concert it goes off. About 10-20% of the time when I'm in the kitchen chopping through poultry, smashing garlic, or shaking a half gallon of OJ hard it gives me a false alarm. This is totally reproducable. But the two times I've fallen hard, both from tripping over something on the floor in the middle of the night, it doesn't detect a fall.

Apple won't admit it, but they need to acknowledge they must work on fall detection and get it to actually work. The false alarms are annoying, but the falls, including the one I had last night which resulted in my head hitting the bed frame hard that weren't detected means this feature is an abject failure.

I have had my watch since mid December 2018. It gave 3 false positives, one even on a chair lift skiing. I worked with Apple support, sent the watch in for calibration. Came back "No Trouble Found". Wore it for three days and it gave two fall alerts with just random hand movement. Apple support said that they would try again with the recalibrate and send it back but would not replace until it failed 3 times. So I send it back the second time, find "no trouble found". Then wear it and have it false positive on a fall again and then they would replace it.

Rather than go thru that nightmare, I decided to wear it for a month with fall detection off. Supposedly it learns from your movement as to what a fall is and what it isnt. Sending the watch in for Recalibration just resets this personal motion learning routine so you never really get anywhere.

Anyway, into my second week wearing it without fall dectection on. Two more weeks and I will turn it back on and see what happens.

The feature is not ready for prime time at all in my estimation.

That could very well be that the rapid downward motion makes the detection system think a fall has occurred. In fact, I'm sure that's true.

Having said that, permit me to point out some problems assuming that fact.

1. The motion is only a foot at most for anyone. I even measured my drop from a video taken and it was 12 inches max and a mean of 10 inches. One would hope that the watch wouldn't consider 10-12 inches of movement a fall. Even if you were sitting and fell out of the chair, wouldn't you have fallen more than a foot generally.
2. Shouldn't the watch know by now that my chopping motion isn't a fall after I've told the watch each time that I didn't fall.
3. The constant fall detections and telling it I didn't fall without improvement in the area of false-positives indicates to me that the watch is failing to learn.
4. The lack of knowing I have fallen, when I first tripped and fell thrice since getting the watch and then noticing it didn't detect the falls, purposely falling about a dozen times without detection tells me the software needs significant rewriting and that the base algorithm is faulty as is the AI component since it doesn't seem to learn.

I agree that an unworn Apple Watch should not trigger a false alarm.

After re-reading Apple's description of fall detection:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

I no longer consider my two false alarms an issue at all. Many cases described here are also nuisance alarms that as Apple designed it, will not call in emergency services even if no action is taken by the wearer. In my cases, I was moving and no such action would be taken.

However, if an unworn watch can trigger a false alarm (pet knocking down or whatever), then the un-moving watch could trigger emergency services. That is a minor concern that Apple should engineer around.

Still digging the little device. I derided it quite a bit when they were announced. Not any more.

Read this, it might explain why your watch displays a false Fall Detection...https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

I am also finding false fall positives on my Series 4 - and it is repeatable.

First, I have triggered fall detection multiple times when in putting on the watch, it slips out of my hand as I am putting it on. It falls to the floor and triggers fall detection.

Second, the Watch repeatably will trigger fall detection when I am gesturing during making presentations.

I just left my month old watch at the Apple Store to have it sent in for recalibration. They obviously have an issue. Mine went off 5 times, one time sitting on a ski chair lift and the last time just putting it down as you would normally put down a watch on my bathroom counter. The watch went off as I went into the shower and did not hear the alarm. Luckily my wife heard it and we were able to shut the 911 call off before it completed.

If it isnt a swr issue, they have a lot of watches in peoples hands that arent using the feature that may one day and have these same issues out of warranty. Especially if you are under their required age to use the feature right now and try to turn it on in say 5 years.

After 7 weeks on the phone (14 hours) with multiple Apple support people, they finally replaced my series 4.

I haven't had a false fall detection since.

Anyone wonder why there is nothing in the news about this problem?

I disagree. A false alarm is a problem. I’ve had my watch since Christmas and have had three false alarms. The third was yesterday after I clapped my hands then set my hands in my lap. At that point I called apple care to tell them. I did raise the volume and haptics hoping if I had background noise when it happened again I could stop it from calling the ambulance. I was told to call back if it continued and they would see what could be done. The fall detection is the only reason I chose the series 4 watch. Would you not consider it a problem if your home security had a false alarm when you were quietly sleeping away and the siren went off and police came to your house? It’s the same principal. People invest in these things so they have peace of mind and help quickly in a bad situation.

I have had several false alarms, each where I took a sudden hard impact to my wrist ... but not a fall, and one real fall during a step workout, which my watch detected. However today I followed a routine I’ve had ever since I got the watch, taking it off and putting it on a table while I took a shower, and my husband says it actually rang 911. He had no idea what was going on, but when he heard the voice asking what was the emergency, he was able to let them know there wasn’t any. This is of concern to me, since there is no reason on earth why the fall detection should be triggered when I’m not even wearing the watch.

Maybe the rapid motion of your hand resembles a fall.

Naah. A false alarm is not a big problem. You have sixty seconds to click "I did not fall."

Now I'm up to a "Senior Apple Watch Advisor", which I guess is above a "Senior Customer Service Representative".

She is contacting the engineering department to see if I should get a replacement. This should only take 4-5 days...

She claims that the software in the watch is "learning" my movements and should improve over time.

I haven't tried chopping up garlic. I'm afraid to!!!

This is never ending.....

I had that happen once - took watch off and placed on dresser before going into the shower - and also luckily my wife heard the notification and brought me the Watch to ask what to do.

But, that happened within the first few days of getting the series 4 Watch and has not happened since, so perhaps there is a calibration period for the accelerometer that is what detects the "falls". (Hope so anyway.)