Your journey
Start here
What Silver Shield is, how the technology works, what each feature does, and why Pontosense’s approach is different.
Everyone on your team who will talk about, install, or use Silver Shield: owners, operators, sales and care staff, care coordinators, and installers. It does not assume any prior knowledge of the product, so start here before the other sections.
Know the product
Silver Shield is designed to give families and care teams greater awareness when a resident is alone, or without a caregiver, family member, or staff member in the room.
Silver Shield adds another layer of awareness by helping surface:
The goal is to help you know more about what is happening when the person is on their own.
That means more events and meaningful changes can be surfaced than by relying on in-person observation alone.
Know the product
By the end of this section you should be able to explain how mmWave radar works, what Silver Shield detects, and why it is a good fit for aging care.
Silver Shield uses mmWave radar: safe, low-power radio waves that sense motion in a space. The sensor reads how those waves reflect back off whatever is in the room, and interprets the change in those reflections as movement.
It does not capture images. It senses movement and micro-movements, such as walking, sitting, and subtle breathing-related motion, so you can understand what is happening in a room without anything visually invasive.
Getting a visual of what the sensor detects can help you understand what it is seeing. The video below shows what it actually looks like.
Purely conceptual view only. Actual algorithms use point cloud data.
“What we see is a moving cluster of dots, enough to know that a person is there, where they are, and how they are moving. Not enough to know who they are, or what they look like.”
Understands when someone is in a space, and when activity meaningfully changes.
Flags sudden, atypical movement patterns that can appear as a fall.
Detects subtle motion, such as breathing-related movement, to support non-clinical wellbeing insights.
Shows changes in routine that can mean someone’s support needs are shifting.
Together, these signals help teams spot changes earlier and reach out sooner, without cameras in the room.
In aging care, comfort and reliability matter. Silver Shield provides ambient sensing in the home, so support does not depend on someone remembering to wear, charge, or manage a device.
Know the product
What exists today and what each thing does. How to actually work them day to day is in Run it day to day.
A monitored environment tied to a resident or client.
A room is the space. A zone is an area within it, like the bed zone.
An alert notifies people. An event is the detection behind it.
Patterns over time. Not real-time.
Where past alerts and events are reviewed.
| Feature | What it tells you | How to know | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall detection | Someone may have fallen. | Notification | Web, app, SMS |
| Activity alerts | Someone got out of bed, left a room, or another person arrived. | Notification | Web, app |
| Real-time presence | Where someone is in a room, right now. | Check in platform | Web, app |
| Wellness dashboard | Which homes have changed since yesterday. | Check in platform | Web · desktop only |
| Breathing trends | Breathing patterns while in bed, over time. | Check in platform | Web, app |
| Admin | How the account is set up and who sees what. | Web |
Use the demo portal to see the features on this page for yourself, such as real-time presence, the layout, and the different tabs and configurations available.
↗Home care demo portaldemo.pontosense.com/home-care ↗Senior living demo portaldemo.pontosense.com/senior-livingLive presence and position within a room and its zones.
Use it for context when responding to an alert, or for reassurance during a check-in.
Pontosense sends an alert when a fall is detected in the room. SMS alerts can also be enabled for people without app access. This is useful for a neighbour, or anyone who is not an active app user but may need a text when the primary contacts cannot respond.
Real-time notifications for movements that often matter.
Tells you which homes have changed, so you know who to focus on today.
Each home is placed in a tier based on how far it has moved from its own 14-day baseline, so you can focus on the homes that have changed.
Three categories: overnight rest, activity, and bathroom. These combine into the home’s overall tier.
Once a day, at around 6am in each home’s local time zone. What you see each morning reflects the previous full day.
Breathing patterns while in bed, over days, weeks and months.
Breathing trends are only offered for rooms set as Bedroom, and only while the resident is in bed. The reading updates periodically, every 30 minutes, so it is not meant to be used for real-time detection.
It does not diagnose anything, it is not proof of life, and it does not provide emergency response.
Know the product
Watch this demo video for an understanding of the product functionalities and how it works.
Silver Shield in Action: smarter home safety for older adult care.
Know the product
Pontosense’s full-stack IP enables reliable insights for all staff and users. In a facility pilot, we ran A/B tests against other radar technologies, and the results showed two clear advantages of Pontosense technology.
Wall
19% of room
Ceiling
58% of room
Corner
94% of room
Reliable detection Partial Dead zone Sensor
Wall mounting leaves dead zones at the sides. Ceiling mounting covers more but loses accuracy on activity insight. The corner covers the most of the room.
| Measure | Silver Shield | Competitor |
|---|---|---|
| False fall alerts alerts when no fall occurred | 0.6% | 8.9% |
| Sleep-timing accuracy bedtime and wake events | >90% | 30% |
| Devices per resident suite to cover the entire space | 3 | 4 |
Silver Shield showed significantly fewer false alerts, better sleep-timing accuracy, and fewer devices needed per resident to cover the whole space, making it a more cost-efficient and more accurate solution.
Start here
Our recommendations for offering Silver Shield: pick the clients or care settings you want to offer it to, and see the model we suggest for each and what to decide before you start.
Owners, operators, and anyone deciding how Silver Shield fits into your services. It assumes you already know what the product does. If you don’t yet, start with Know the product. Home care agencies and senior living communities each have their own part, so pick your setting at the top of the page to see only yours.
Home care agencies
Tick the types of client you want to offer Silver Shield to. Each one shows the model we recommend and what to decide before you start. You can pick more than one.
Silver Shield is something you can offer to families as part of your care offering. How you set it up is up to you, but we recommend positioning it as part of your service: it gives families 24/7 visibility into what happens when no one is there, and your team reviews the data and gives the family updates from a professional care standpoint.
If a family sees it as a device you are passing on, they may simply buy a separate device themselves, or it may cause more issues down the road. The value it adds, and what sets it apart from other products on the market, is your care team’s analysis and recommendations.
Families considering home care but not yet ready to commit to regular care hours, because of cost, limited needs, or uncertainty about when to start.
What we suggest
Offer a 30-day digital care assessment with Silver Shield in the home. It gives the family a low-pressure first step with a clear end date, and a reason to stay with you rather than walk away. If a family wants to start care now instead, include Silver Shield with their care from the start.
Suggested agency offering and cost
Assessment: a flat $150 for the 30 days, credited toward the first invoice if the family starts care with you. Families who don’t start care still cover the cost, and it gives families a reason to start at day 30: “Your $150 goes toward your first week of care.” Your intake visit stays free, as usual. You can also offer the assessment free, as a cost of winning new clients.
Keeping it without care hours: if a family wants to keep Silver Shield after day 30 but isn’t ready for care hours, about $50 a week, billed directly, with regular trend reviews and a check-in when something changes.
Clients already receiving home care who may benefit from additional hours, but aren’t yet ready or convinced they need more support.
What we suggest
Offer Silver Shield for an extra amount per care hour, with no separate line item. Include a review of changes in their routines, and send updates to the family.
Suggested agency offering and cost
An extra $2 to $5 per care hour, with no separate line item, capped at a weekly maximum. Includes regular reviews of changes in their routines, with updates to the family.
Clients whose care needs are increasing and who may benefit from moving to more comprehensive support, such as 20+ hours of care per week.
What we suggest
Include Silver Shield at no extra cost when they agree to move up in hours. As with Model 2, include a review of changes in their routines and updates to the family.
Suggested agency offering and cost
Included at no extra cost once a client is at 20 or more hours a week, with the same regular reviews and family updates.
You can also still offer Silver Shield to clients who are happy with their current care and would like some additional support.
Whichever options you pick, we recommend settling these up front, before the first install.
Whatever you decide, tell the family who gets an alert at each time of day, and only say your agency responds overnight if it does.
These apply to every option. We recommend checking them before you pitch, so a family does not agree to something that then cannot be installed.
Cords and outlets can often be solved with cable clips or longer cables. If the home still cannot support the sensor, we recommend not going ahead.
Home care agencies
Before you start, decide how fall alerts fit into what you offer. There is no single right answer. It depends on what your agency can support.
Decide whether you respond during business hours or 24/7, and what a response looks like: for example, a phone call, or sending someone over. Consider what that costs you in staff time, travel and after-hours cover. Responding to alerts can also increase what you charge.
Decide internally how you will position fall alerts. If the family is willing and wants to be the one who receives them, you can give them access to fall alerts, in the app or by SMS if they don’t use the app.
If you are offering Silver Shield mainly as something your agency uses to support the care plan, you can mention fall alerts as an option, or not draw focus to them. You don’t always need to lead with fall alerts, since they can become a point of contention with the family, for example “why don’t you respond?”
Every fall event is logged, whichever option you choose, and the history can go into your care plan updates. You can still see where, when and how many falls happened, and use that to make recommendations. Are they happening at night? Around the same area of the home? After the incident in Run it day to day covers how to read the history.
Silver Shield does not call emergency services. Whoever receives an alert, whether that is your team or the family, is the one who acts on it.
Senior living communities
Tick the care settings you want to offer Silver Shield in. Each one shows what we recommend and what to decide with your staff before you start.
Offered when the resident or family wants it, as an optional monthly add-on.
What we suggest
Offer it when the resident or family wants it, charged as an optional monthly add-on. Residents choose it like an amenity, so it is the one setting where we recommend charging extra.
Decide before you start
Included in the care-level fees, with on-site staff responding.
What we suggest
Include Silver Shield in the care-level fees. It is part of the care at that level, not an additional surcharge or add-on.
Included in the all-inclusive rate, with on-site staff responding.
What we suggest
Include Silver Shield in the all-inclusive rate. Residents can’t meaningfully opt in or out here, so a separate fee can read as a charge for basic safety.
Also decide before you start
Included as an operator cost, not billed to residents or payers.
What we suggest
Include Silver Shield as an operator cost, not billed to residents or payers. We suggest piloting it on one unit or wing first.
Whichever settings you pick, we recommend agreeing these with your staff up front, before the first install. In independent living, also agree how alerts are handled with each resident and their family.
In senior living, staff buy-in decides whether alerts get acted on. The most common concern from staff is that it means more alerts and more work. What we have seen work:
Start here
This guide covers how to talk about Silver Shield with families, what the value is for them, and how to answer the questions they may have.
Anyone who has the conversation with a family: owners, sales and community relations staff, care managers, admissions coordinators, and the care staff families stop in the hallway. It assumes you have already decided to offer Silver Shield, so it covers the family-facing conversation rather than your own evaluation of the product.
The conversation
The exact words to use, and the words to leave out.
"Silver Shield detects falls and wellbeing concerns without cameras, microphones, or wearables. It enables older adults to live independently, gives families peace of mind, and supports your agency to provide more personalized, proactive care."
| The alternative | The problem with it |
|---|---|
| Cameras | Lighting dependent, and they feel invasive in a bedroom or bathroom, which is where most falls happen. |
| Audio | Requires an always-on microphone, and trigger words to actually be said out loud. |
| Wearables | They only help when worn, and they are easy to forget or refuse. |
The conversation
Some families will be weighing up other products for their loved one. This is a short guide to the most common alternatives, their strengths and their limits, so you can help a family work out what actually fits their needs.
The more useful question is which technology matches what your care team needs to know.
| Technology | Strongest at | Where it falls short | What Silver Shield adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameras & video | Visual verification of what happened, and security in shared spaces. | Privacy and acceptance in bedrooms and bathrooms. Accuracy depends on positioning, lighting and visibility. | Safety and wellness awareness without recording video, images or conversations. |
| Microphones & audio | Hearing a resident call for help, and analysing conversations or verbal feedback. | Many incidents are silent. A resident may fall without yelling, be confused, or be unable to speak. | Awareness that does not depend on sound, without listening to or recording conversations. |
| Wearables, pendants & call buttons | Resident-initiated help anywhere, including outside the monitored room. | Depend on the resident wearing, charging, remembering and being able to press the device. | Passive coverage inside the room for the times that does not happen. The two often work together. |
| Single-use contact sensors | One specific event, at a relatively low cost per device. | Event-specific by design. Broader awareness means several devices and several systems to manage. | Falls, presence, movement, bed exits, activity and wellness changes with one device. |
| Motion & occupancy sensors | Knowing whether someone is in the room and whether movement occurred. | No context. Knowing movement happened is not the same as identifying what movement happened. | Falls, activity patterns, bed exits and wellness changes on top of presence. |
These are the questions families want a solution to answer, and why radar fits the need.
The conversation
If a family later finds out something you told them was not accurate, the trust is hard to recover, and it can affect the relationship long after the sale.
Silver Shield detects and alerts. It does not make a prediction about risk, and it cannot prevent an event in the moment.
No diagnosis, no clinical claim, and no proof of life. Silver Shield is a wellness device, not a medical device.
| What you can say | What you never say |
|---|---|
| That it is a differentiator against other solutions, and that it supports a high-level understanding of sleep quality and patterns. | That it monitors whether someone is breathing or alive. It is not a proof-of-life feature, and that is a medical-device claim Silver Shield does not make. |
If a family asks something you’re not sure about, it’s fine to say you’ll find out and get back to them. That’s better than guessing at a spec, a number or a date, because families may hold you to whatever you tell them. The same goes for new features: if something hasn’t been released yet, don’t mention it to families as coming.
The conversation
What lands with a family depends on the setting and on how you offer Silver Shield. Work from the part below that matches your clients and the model you chose in Plan your program.
The older adult can still say no. Speak to them directly, with the family in the room, and get their agreement before anything is installed.
In senior living, the resident’s say gets smaller as you move from independent living to skilled nursing, so the family carries more of the conversation.
If you can’t show a live unit, or you are speaking to a family over the phone, share this video. It is less technical than the full product demo, and easier for families to watch.
Silver Shield demo video.
Use these demo dashboards in your own demos, to show a family what the platform looks like in use.
↗Home care demo dashboarddemo.pontosense.com/home-care ↗Senior living demo dashboarddemo.pontosense.com/senior-livingEach model has lines for the family and lines for your client. Use the set that matches how you are offering it.
To the family
“Start with this instead of scheduled visits. You’ll get alerts if something happens, and we’ll review how she’s doing with you every [week/month].”
“Your mom doesn’t have to agree to ‘care’ yet. Nothing to wear and no one coming to the door.”
“If she needs more help later, we’ll already know her routine, so the next step is easier for everyone.”
To your client
“Your kids worry about you. This lets them worry a little less without anyone coming into your home or changing your day.”
“It doesn’t watch you. It’s a small sensor in the corner that only sees movement, like a shape. Want to see what it shows?”
“You decide which rooms it goes in. You stay in charge of how you live.”
To the family
“This is part of how we care for your dad. Our team reviews how his nights went every morning.”
“His caregiver walks in already knowing whether he slept poorly or was up more than usual.”
“Between visits, you and our team can both see how he’s doing. During our hours we follow up on changes, and overnight, fall alerts go straight to you.”
To your client
“This helps [caregiver’s name] take better care of you. She’ll know how you slept before she walks in, so you don’t have to explain it.”
“You don’t have to do anything. Nothing to wear, charge, or press.”
“If something happens when [caregiver’s name] isn’t here, your family gets a heads-up, even if you can’t reach the phone.”
To the family
“As your dad needs more help, his care should cover more than our visits. At this level of care, Silver Shield is included.”
“If he falls when no one is there, an alert goes to the people you choose, even if he can’t reach a button.”
“We’ll show you how his routines are changing, so we can adjust his care together as his needs grow.”
To your client
“You’re getting a bit more help from us now. This makes sure the time we’re not here is covered too, without more people in your home.”
“If you ever take a fall, you won’t need to reach a button or a phone. Your family will know.”
“It helps us notice small changes in your routine early, so we can adjust your care with you, not after something goes wrong.”
Your visits cover part of the week. Silver Shield covers the nights, the early mornings, and the long stretches when nobody is there.
They can see how their parent is doing without intrusive camera technology.
Nothing to wear, remember, or press. The older adult does not have to change how they live, or accept being watched, to be safer.
A shift in sleep, or more trips overnight, gets noticed while it is still a small change, before it turns into an incident.
To the resident
“You live here to stay independent. This lets you keep doing that, with a heads-up to the people you choose if something happens.”
“Nothing to wear, charge, or remember. Unlike a pendant, it works even if you can’t reach it.”
“It’s your choice. You pick the rooms and who gets notified.”
To the family
“If your mom falls in her apartment, you’ll know, even if she can’t reach a button.”
“You’ll see how her days are going (sleep, activity, time out of the apartment) without calling to check.”
“It can help her stay in independent living longer, with support in the background.”
To the resident
“This helps our team look after you without knocking on your door at night.”
“If you’re up at night or have a fall, someone here knows right away.”
“Nothing to wear or press. It just sits in the corner.”
To the family
“At this level of care, it’s part of how our team looks after your dad. If he falls or is up more at night, staff know right away.”
“You’ll be able to see the shape of his day: when he’s up, whether he made it to meals, how long he’s been resting.”
“When his routine changes, our care team sees it too, and we’ll talk with you about what it means for his care.”
To the resident · keep it short and reassuring
“This helps us know you’re okay, so we don’t have to wake you.”
“It’s just a small sensor. It doesn’t take pictures.”
To the family
“Staff know when your mom is up at night or leaves her room, so they can be there sooner.”
“No cameras in her bedroom or bathroom. Her dignity stays intact.”
“Changes in her routine show up early, so our team can adjust her care and keep you informed.”
To the resident
“This helps the nurses know right away if you need them, especially at night.”
“There’s nothing for you to do, and it doesn’t record video or sound.”
To the family
“It’s part of how we care for every resident on this unit. There’s no extra charge.”
“If your dad falls, nurses are alerted right away, even if he can’t press a call button.”
“It gives our team a clearer picture of his nights, so we can adjust his care sooner.”
Your staff cannot be in every room at once, and no family expects them to be. A fall in the gap gets found in minutes instead of at the next check.
Sleep, activity and bathroom patterns over time, so the care conference has recorded data to work from instead of someone’s recollection.
On a tour, it shows families that you have thought about the hours between rounds.
Families placing a parent are managing guilt of their own. Being able to say “and here is what happens overnight” tends to make that conversation easier.
With families, never frame Silver Shield as staff checking on residents less. Frame it as staff knowing sooner when a resident needs them.
Handling pushback
Families and residents will have questions about the technology. Here are the objections that come up most often, and how to answer them.
Silver Shield does not capture the things people associate with surveillance.
A small radar sensor installed in the rooms where greater visibility is needed. It detects presence, movement, and patterns over time.
No camera. No microphone. No video or audio recording. There is no footage to review because the system does not create footage in the first place.
Families and care teams see alerts and insights: a fall alert, or changes in activity, sleep, and routines over time. They do not see a live video feed of the person.
“There is nothing to watch. We are not choosing not to look; there is no picture and no sound to look at.”
For the older adult, the concern is often less about data and more about dignity. They do not want to feel watched in their own bedroom, bathroom, or living space.
Frame the answer around their experience: nothing needs to be worn, there is no camera pointed at them, and they can continue living normally in their own home.
In senior living, some communities want the sensor to be less visible: mount it high in the corner, and explain it to the resident and family before move-in.
In senior living, families may ask specifically about monitoring inside the resident’s room. Acknowledge that the room is still the resident’s personal space. Be clear about where sensors are installed, what they detect, and what they cannot capture.
Families may not ask this directly, but it is often the concern underneath the conversation.
| Setting | What they may be worried about | How to explain it |
|---|---|---|
| Home care | Visits will be reduced because the technology is monitoring the home. | Silver Shield is intended to add visibility during the hours when a caregiver or family member is not there. It can also provide more context about whether someone’s needs may be changing. |
| Senior living | Staff will check on their parent less because technology is doing the monitoring. | Staff remain responsible for care. Silver Shield adds another layer of awareness between in-person interactions, so an event does not have to wait until the next scheduled check to be noticed. |
“Does this mean staff will check on Mom less?” “No. It means staff know sooner when she needs them.”
Operational efficiency can be part of the business case for the care provider, but it should not be the family-facing message. With a family, put it this way:
“There are periods when nobody can physically be watching. This gives the care team greater awareness during those gaps without putting a camera in the room.”
Do not tell them what they already use is wrong. Explain what Silver Shield does differently.
| They already use | What it relies on | The difference with Silver Shield |
|---|---|---|
| A pendant | The person wearing it, and being able or willing to activate it. | Silver Shield does not require the person to wear, charge, remember, or press anything. |
| A camera | Continuous visual monitoring. | Silver Shield provides awareness without recording video or audio. |
| Daily calls or check-ins | Someone answering, and the issue happening close enough to the check-in to be noticed. | Silver Shield can provide visibility into what is happening between those conversations. |
That may be completely true: a professional caregiver may visit regularly, an adult child may be home every evening, or a neighbour may check in.
The question is what happens between those moments. Position Silver Shield as filling the visibility gap when nobody is physically present, rather than replacing the people already providing care.
In senior living, the family already knows there are staff on site, so the response is slightly different.
The facility already has staff. The challenge is that staff cannot physically be in every resident’s room at every moment.
The value of Silver Shield is the additional awareness it can provide between in-person interactions, particularly when something changes unexpectedly.
Avoid saying “you need fewer staff checks.” Instead, try: “Your staff cannot be everywhere at once. This gives them another way to know when someone may need attention.”
How you answer depends on how you offer it.
Frame it as the lower-cost step before care hours.
It is part of the care, not an extra.
When a family asks why they should pay extra, compare it to a pendant she may not wear, and to the cost of moving up a level of care sooner.
“Yes. This is how we do it better between visits.”
Never position it as covering gaps in your care.
Show the family their view and their alert settings, and explain exactly how and when your team responds.
Families can view activity and routines. Answer from the family access policy you set when planning your program, so every family hears the same thing.
Lead with two or three simple trends, such as sleep, nighttime wake-ups and activity, along with your own read on what they mean. Don’t hand the family a dashboard and leave them to interpret it.
“Yes, occasionally. Here’s what we do when an alert comes in.”
Be honest about what can affect it: pets, a caregiver helping the person move, walkers and wheelchairs, blankets, and furniture or objects blocking the sensor.
Keep the answer simple. There is no wearable for the resident to manage and no camera system to learn.
The sensor is installed in the room and works in the background. Once set up, the resident does not need to change how they normally live.
If the concern is cords, outlets or Wi-Fi, check the home before you pitch. Cable clips or longer cables often solve it. If the home cannot support the sensor, it is better to say so than to install it anyway.
Rather than arguing that they need it, help them identify whether any of the common situations apply to them.
A useful way to frame it is: “Being in the house is not the same as being awake all night. If you are personally responsible for watching for every movement, it can become exhausting.”
Silver Shield provides another layer of awareness without requiring someone to stay awake and monitor continuously.
Respect their decision. Silver Shield works best when the person has agreed to it, especially at home and in independent and assisted living.
Silver Shield works alongside caregivers, family members and existing care. It adds awareness during the times when nobody can physically be there, while protecting the person’s privacy and dignity.
Start here
Everything you need to get a Silver Shield sensor from box to fully monitoring, from planning the visit through to handing the account over.
Owners, operators, territory managers, and field installers at distribution partners doing a real install in a client's home or facility. It assumes the sale is closed and a device is ready to be installed. If you're past installation and looking for how to run an account day to day, see Run it day to day instead.
Before you arrive
Most installation problems are predictable, and they trace back to skipping this step. A sensor ends up in a less than ideal corner because placement was never scoped, or a recalibration is needed weeks later because the room, or the household itself, wasn't factored in up front.
None of this should be sorted out for the first time on-site.
Built-in cabinetry, furniture, doors, and structural columns can obstruct the sensor's field of view. Where these are present, a standard corner mount may not be enough. See Non-standard rooms.
If the bathroom door is open, or its doorway falls within the bedroom sensor's field of view, movement in the ensuite can register as bedroom activity. Recommended: a dedicated sensor in the ensuite, plus a blocking zone on the bedroom sensor covering the bathroom area.
Shared rooms change how alerts behave. Flag them early so expectations are set before install. Recommended: one dedicated sensor per bed or resident. Fall detection and alerts pause when three or more people are in the room.
See Non-standard rooms when: only part of a corner is usable due to fixed furniture or architecture; every corner in the room is obstructed or unsuitable; the room is an irregular shape that changes the coverage geometry; or there are fixed fixtures (kitchen cabinets, built-ins) that can't be moved.
Silver Shield is intentionally sensitive to fall-like activity, so that it catches as many real falls as possible. Because of that, some home conditions create more alert "noise" than others. These homes can still have Silver Shield. They need more careful setup, and clear expectations before go-live.
| Condition | Why it happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Wheelchairs | Transitioning into/out of a wheelchair, or repositioning while seated, can resemble fall-like biomechanics. | Confirm how much of the day the resident uses the wheelchair; zone carefully around its typical position; consider lower-complexity rooms for a first install. |
| Pets | Jumping down from furniture can briefly resemble a fall. | Confirm pets and their activity level; set expectations for occasional extra suspected-fall activity; flag active-pet homes to Pontosense. |
| Recliners | A rapid sit-to-recline motion can look like a fall-like transition. | Zone as a couch zone (see Calibrating & zoning) or accept some expected suspected-fall activity in that spot. |
| Multiple people in the room | Overlapping movement, especially children playing at floor level, creates a more complex motion environment. | Confirm who's regularly in the home and which rooms are busiest; set expectations early. Fall detection and alerts pause when three or more people are in the room. |
Before you arrive
Worth finishing before you arrive: confirming the network will support the sensor, so install day stays focused on installing.
| Check | What "good" looks like |
|---|---|
| Signal strength | Strong and stable in every target room, with reliable connectivity at -70 dBm or better and enough bandwidth for multiple devices at once. |
| Band | 2.4 GHz, or dual-band with 2.4 GHz enabled. 5 GHz-only networks are not supported, so a single-band 5 GHz SSID needs to be resolved before install day. |
| Credentials | Obtained in advance. Don't leave this for install day, since chasing credentials on-site causes avoidable delays. |
| Captive portals | Not supported. A network that requires a browser-based login to connect will not work. |
| Firewall | Outbound access allowed on ports 53, 80, 443, 8883, and 123, with the device's MAC address whitelisted if the network filters by MAC. For managed networks, confirm with the site's IT team ahead of time. |
| Firmware | Pre-update devices where possible by running the onboarding steps without mounting. This removes a step from the on-site process. Updating first matters because the firmware a unit ships with doesn't have the best angle tolerance (see Connecting to Wi-Fi). |
| Data usage | Newer firmware increases each device’s data usage. If the client uses a mobile hotspot or a limited-data network, contact Pontosense Support or your Customer Success Manager before installing. |
Wi-Fi signal can vary significantly room to room. If coverage is uncertain in any target room, a brief on-site signal check before booking the full install is time well spent.
Installation day
Each install is a corner-mounted sensor, powered from a wall outlet, connected to Wi-Fi, and set up entirely through the mobile app. You don’t need a professional installer. Adhesive mounting needs no extra tools. Screw mounting needs a drill, wall anchors, and a Phillips screwdriver.
| Included in each kit | Bring with you |
|---|---|
|
|
Coverage, line of sight, and a nearby outlet decide this. See Choosing the right corner.
Plug the sensor into a wall outlet and confirm the LED is flashing green slowly. Pairing is guided entirely through the Pontosense Care app. Update the firmware before you go further. See Connecting to Wi-Fi.
Adhesive or screws, then tidy the power cable against the wall. See Mounting the device.
This is what makes detection accurate in that room. See Calibrating & zoning.
Set the Fall Detection Delay and create bed-exit and other alerts. See Configuring notifications.
Installation day
Silver Shield senses from a single corner, so placement decides how much of the room it can see. Review every guideline below before mounting the bracket.
Measure to the nearest 10cm, since performance is best when the entered dimensions are accurate. Each sensor covers up to 6m x 6m; a larger room (e.g. 12m x 8m) should be split into zones covered by more than one sensor, each monitoring its own area.
Installation day
Two mounting options, adhesive or screws, followed by tidying the power cable against the wall.
The device should already be plugged in, paired, and updated (see Connecting to Wi-Fi). If the LED isn't behaving as expected, check LED light reference before going any further.
Use an alcohol wipe on the wall surface where the bracket will go, to help the adhesive bond properly.
Measure 2 meters from the floor and mark it in pencil.
One 3M strip to each flap of the mounting sleeve.
Remove the red backing, then gently fold the flaps inward.
Align the bottom with the pencil mark. Fit it snugly into the corner, level and flush with both walls, not tilted up or down.
Hold the bracket with one hand and firmly press each flap against the wall. Hold each for 5 seconds.
Typically used for uneven walls, such as wallpaper, brick, and similar surfaces.
Same 2m measurement as the adhesive method.
Align and hold it level and flush in the corner.
While holding the bracket in place, mark each screw hole location.
At each marked point.
Tap gently until flush with the wall.
Align with the drilled holes, confirm it's still level, then drive the screws in with a Phillips head screwdriver.
Cable clips keep the cord anchored to the wall so it doesn't hang loosely or become a trip hazard. The kit includes 10 adhesive cable clips.
Clean the wall where the cable will run; let it dry fully.
Then test the placement. It should be taut but not strained, with clips every 30 to 50cm.
Peel the backing, press firmly, hold for 5–10 seconds.
Until the cable is neatly routed.
Installation day
Pairing runs entirely through the Pontosense Care app once the device is plugged in. It's completed using a Bluetooth (BLE) workflow shown in the app, so confirm your phone has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth both turned on before you start.
Plug the device in and confirm the LED is flashing green slowly. That means it's in its factory state and ready to onboard. If it isn't, check LED light reference before going any further.
With your installer credentials, in the correct organization.
The one this device belongs to.
The app detects nearby devices, or you can scan a QR code on the unit.
Enter the credentials gathered during the network checklist.
Once the device is online, install any available firmware update before mounting, calibration, or zoning. Wait for the update to finish and the device to come back online. Turn on auto-upgrade under Settings → Device Upgrade → Settings so firmware stays current. It runs after the device detects about 30 minutes of vacancy.
Different firmware versions have different angle tolerance levels, and the firmware a device ships with doesn't have the best angle tolerance. The order to follow is connect to Wi-Fi, update the firmware, then mount, calibrate, and zone. Updates must be pushed manually unless auto-upgrade is on, so enable it during installation. That way the client is installing on the latest version from the start. If you pre-updated the unit before the visit, confirm it's on the latest version before you move on.
Power-cycle the device (unplug, wait, plug back in). If it blinks green, retry onboarding.
Confirm the device is powered, in range, and you're logged into the correct organization. A partial reset (hold the bottom button until the LED flashes red) usually resolves it.
Move the sensor closer to the access point to pair, then reposition to the final mount location. Use an extension cord if no outlet is nearby at the stronger spot.
Likely an outbound firewall issue. Confirm ports 53, 80, 443, 8883, and 123 are open. See Common on-site issues.
Hold the button on the underside for about 5 seconds until the LED blinks red, then release. It should blink green, ready to pair. This is a partial reset, separate from a full factory reset (done from the dashboard or app).
Installation day
Calibration and zoning teach the platform the room's dimensions, the sensor's mounting height, and what to expect in each part of the room, so detection is accurate.
Tap Add Sensor, select a room type, and rename it to match how the care team actually refers to it, not a default label.
The height you measure and enter must be to the bottom of the device, since its own dimensions are already factored in. Getting this wrong is a common cause of missed falls and false alerts, so it's worth confirming carefully.
Use the app's real-time presence icon to determine the room's width and depth, or edit them manually after 30 seconds.
See below. Required before the room can be saved.
Tap Save and Continue, then Finish.
From the room's Settings menu.
Especially after remounting a device.
Measure and enter, or drag the room borders on screen.
Then save.
The room should be empty of other residents, children, or pets during calibration, since other presence during setup can affect accuracy. Walk around the room afterward to confirm coverage before you leave.
Bed and Couch. These directly affect fall sensitivity, since the system expects normal bed/couch movement here, so everyday transitions don't trigger unnecessary alerts.
Mark entryways. Door zones support door and entry/exit alerts.
Toilet, Medication station. Contextual only, they don't change detection behaviour or sensitivity.
Zoning beds and couches.
Choose the furniture type: bed, couch, door, medication station, or toilet.
A predefined size, or Custom (measure with a tape and enter length/width).
Use the app's real-time positioning view. Sit or lie on the furniture to see the presence icon move and confirm placement.
Boundaries can be adjusted any time after placement if real-time positioning shows a mismatch.
A recliner's footprint extends significantly when reclined, which creates a choice:
Zone only the upright footprint. Better fall-risk sensitivity near the recliner; more false positives from the reclining motion itself.
Zone the full recline length as a couch zone. Fewer false positives from reclining; reduced fall sensitivity in that area.
If the resident reclines frequently, lean toward the extended zone. If fall risk near the recliner is the priority, keep it tight.
Installation day
Set when users are notified of a fall, and create the alerts people will receive. Do this after calibration and zoning, while you're still on site.
The time between a suspected fall and when users are notified. It gives the system time to confirm the event and filter out everyday movements such as bending or squatting. If the person recovers within the delay, no alert is sent, and the event is logged under Suspected Falls.
Admins can turn fall alerts off, or pause them with a timed automatic resume, for a room during known situations such as exercise, cleaning, or family visits. Fall detection keeps running and every fall event is still logged. Only the alert notification is not sent. Fall alerts are on by default.
Admins manage this on the web dashboard under Admin → Manage Fall Alerts (not in the mobile app). The Live Activity view in the app shows a message while alerts are paused or off.
Bed-exit alerts notify users whenever a resident gets out of bed, which is especially useful during the night when falls often occur. Couch-exit, room-entry, and room-exit alerts work the same way.
Go to Admin → Alerts → Create New. Choose the alert type, home, room, time zone, and alert window, then select who receives it. Users assigned by an Admin cannot disable that alert.
Open the Room, tap Add alert, choose the type, set the time zone and alert window, then save. Personal alerts are managed by each person.
The zone must be set up accurately (see Calibrating & zoning). The resident must be confirmed in the zone for about 2 minutes before an exit alert can trigger, and alerts pause when three or more people are in the room.
When installs get complicated
For rooms where a typical corner installation isn't possible: every corner is obstructed, only part of a corner is usable, the room is an irregular shape, or it's a washroom or kitchen with fixed fixtures.
| Scenario | What it looks like | Recommended approach |
|---|---|---|
| All corners obstructed | Shelving, doors, or built-ins occupy every corner. | Mount on the side of a shelf facing the most open area, choosing the option with the least uncovered space. Mounting near a door is acceptable only if it opens away from the sensor and won't block it when open. |
| Irregular-shaped rooms | Curved walls, L-shapes, alcoves, cut-outs. | Treat the room as the largest usable rectangle formed by the walking path; mount facing the widest open area. Ignore alcoves and dead-end spaces if needed. On curved walls, mount on the flattest section available. |
| Washrooms without a clear corner | One corner covered by a mirror, another blocked by the door. | Mount on top of the mirror if it's the only usable corner, or use the side of a cabinet as a pseudo-corner. Never mount in showers, wet zones, or areas with heavy steam exposure. |
| Kitchens | Large appliances or cabinets occupy most wall space. | Prioritize visibility of walking/standing zones; avoid mounting above or behind appliances. If open to a dining area that keeps the combined space within 6m x 6m, one sensor can cover both. |
| Open-concept / large rooms | Few or no defined corners; combined living/dining spaces. | Treat each functional zone (living area, dining area) as its own room and select the zone with the highest foot traffic or fall risk. Accept reduced coverage outside the selected area, or add a second sensor for the other zone. |
Reach out to your Pontosense contact for placement guidance specific to your room. It is better to ask than to guess on a non-standard layout.
When installs get complicated
A signal that was strong during the assessment can be weaker on the actual day. Here's what to check first.
Device connects to Wi-Fi but can't reach the platform: this is almost always an outbound firewall block. Confirm ports 53, 80, 443, 8883, and 123 are open. This is rare on standard home networks, so check the router's firewall/security settings if it persists there too.
Device not detected during pairing: confirm it's powered on, in range, and that you're logged into the correct organization in the app. A partial reset and re-attempt resolves most remaining cases.
A device that was working can still show “Connection Lost” (previously called Device Offline) if it loses power or its network connection. Fall detection and activity alerts may be affected while it is lost. To resolve:
Happens if onboarding is exited midway, started by another user, or interrupted by a network or power disruption. Open the room and complete the calibration steps to resolve. If calibration was left too far midway, a device reset and re-onboarding may be required.
To check whether a device is powered, press and release the reset button on the bottom. The LED should quickly cycle through red, green, and blue. If it doesn't:
Silver Shield receives over-the-air firmware updates for detection improvements and new features. Updates can be pushed manually from the platform, or devices can be set to update automatically. With auto-upgrade on (Settings → Device Upgrade → Settings), a device updates after it detects about 30 minutes of vacancy, so we recommend turning it on during installation. If an update fails during installation, retry the "upgrade now" banner once the device is live. Performance may differ if onboarding finished on an older firmware version, since angle tolerance varies between versions, so get the update to complete before you finish the install. The platform will flag any critical changes once the update succeeds. Other firmware issues are rare.
Email support@pontosense.com, or reach your Customer Success Manager, Alexander Aleksic (alexander.aleksic@pontosense.com), directly. To help resolve it quickly, include: the device serial number (on the back of the unit, or in the app under Settings → Device Info), the home and room name, a description of the issue (with any error messages or LED states observed) and the date and time with time zone, the steps you've already tried, photos of the installation if relevant, and your name and contact info.
When installs get complicated
A mounting error means the device isn't properly aligned in the corner: tilted too far up or down, or rotated too much to one side. Detection is disabled until it's fixed.
The allowed tolerance is ±3° during onboarding and ±6° after onboarding (current firmware required). Outside that range the LED glows red and detection is disabled until the angle is corrected.
Select the room showing the error.
Check the tilt indicators: Up/Down (pointing too far up or down) and Rotation (rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise in the corner).
For Up/Down tilt: level it horizontally, not angled toward the ceiling or floor. For Rotation: mount flush against both walls with the front bisecting the 90° corner evenly.
Once correctly aligned, the red LED turns off and detection resumes, typically within a minute.
Tap Add Device in the Rooms view and re-follow the onboarding steps to recalibrate.
An incorrect-angle alert is also a useful signal on its own. It can help you identify if a sensor was tampered with, removed, or fell.
Remove the device from the sleeve, then gently remove the sleeve from the wall by pulling on the adhesive flaps. Peel off the old tape, then:
Alcohol wipe, for proper adhesion.
2 meters from the floor.
To each flap.
Ready to press into place.
Flush and level with the pencil mark; hold each flap for 5 seconds.
Clean the wall with alcohol wipes before any adhesive mount. Make sure the corner's walls are vertical and flush. In humid climates especially, mounting angle can drift after install, so it's worth a periodic re-check.
When installs get complicated
What the sensor's LED is telling you, by color and pattern. Referenced throughout this guide, and worth bookmarking. The dots next to each color show the pattern.
| Color | Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Flashing slowly | Factory state, ready to onboard. |
| Green | On (stable) | The sensor is upgrading. |
| Yellow | Flashing slowly | Searching for an available network. |
| Yellow | Flashing quickly | Network identified, connecting to Wi-Fi. |
| Yellow | On (stable) | Bluetooth connection complete, onboarding in progress. |
| Red | Flashing quickly | Restoring factory settings (device reset). |
| Red | On (stable) | Device error, such as an angle alignment issue. See Resolving a mounting error. |
| Blue | Flashing slowly | Retrieving sensor configuration from the server. |
| Blue | Flashing quickly | Connecting to the Pontosense cloud platform. |
| Blue | On (stable) | Mounting complete, calibration in progress. |
| Off | N/A | Standard operating state, or powered off. |
Before you leave
Before you consider the job done, confirm the sensor actually works the way the client will expect it to, then plan to stay involved for the first couple of weeks. Doing both catches most issues early.
The device shows Online under the correct home and room, the angle and tilt values are in the green range, and no LED error is showing.
Update if the dashboard shows a warning, and turn on auto-upgrade (Settings → Device Upgrade → Settings) so firmware stays current.
The room is named the way the care team names it, not a default label.
Walk the room, sit in zoned furniture, lie on the bed, and watch for the presence indicator in the app.
Confirm the alert arrives and reaches the right people. Real fall events are detected using a combination of height change, speed, and body position. Fall detection and alerts pause when three or more people are in the room, so when practicing a fall please ensure only one person is in the room.
True, False Alert, or Not Sure. This is the same workflow the client's family will use.
Including SMS recipients, which are the easiest to overlook.
What it detects, what it can't, that it doesn't call emergency services, that some falls won't alert, that fall detection and alerts pause when three or more people are in the room, and who they should call. Do this before the first real alert, not after.
The time between a possible fall and the alert being sent, 90 seconds by default and adjustable down to 60. This prevents false alarms by giving the system time to confirm the event; if someone falls but recovers within that window, no alert is sent.
This guide assumes you've already done a practice install in your own home. If you haven't done that yet, do it before your first client visit. Every install after your first gets noticeably faster.
Keep admin access and monitor the install for one to two weeks before formally handing over account ownership. Use the window to adjust zone boundaries based on real-world monitoring, finish any firmware updates that weren't done pre-install, and catch persistent alert issues before the client takes over.
Check the platform every other day during this window, and act immediately on: unusually high alert volumes in any one room, an active room generating no alerts at all, or alerts the care team is consistently dismissing right away.
You can present this window to the client as part of your service. A smooth handover means fewer follow-up visits later. Once the window closes, continue with Run it day to day.
Before you leave
If a sensor is moving to a new home, or into a different room, remove it, clear its data, and factory-reset it before reinstalling for a different resident.
Log in to the mobile app, then Home → Room → Settings → Delete Device. This ensures all data is removed from the system.
Press and hold the button on the bottom until the LED flashes red, then release. When the LED begins flashing green slowly, the device is reset and ready for reinstallation.
Always delete the device in the app before pressing the reset button. If the sensor is reset first, the app and the sensor can get out of sync, and Pontosense will need to re-associate the device on the platform. Deleting a room permanently removes its data. To keep a resident's history, reset the device but do not delete the room.
The bracket itself stays on the wall for this step.
Recommended: use a heat gun or hair dryer on low/medium heat to warm the adhesive. This loosens the grip and reduces the chance of wall damage. If no heat source is available, gently separate the adhesive from the wall with a thick card (like a credit card), working slowly from one side to avoid pulling paint.
Start here
Once the sensors are installed, this guide walks through how to use Silver Shield day to day, so you can provide more proactive, personalized care.
Owners, operators, territory managers and care coordinators. It assumes that the sensors have already been sold to the client and devices are installed in your clients’ homes or your residents’ rooms. If you are still installing, start with Install & set up instead.
Using Silver Shield day to day
The Wellness dashboard tells you which homes have changed each day, so you know which of your clients to focus on for the day.
The Wellness dashboard is a beta release. Please send any questions about how it works to your CSM.
Every home lands in one of four tiers, based on how far it has moved from its own baseline. The baseline is a rolling 14 day window based on the home's last 14 days of activity.
| Tier | What it means | Your move |
|---|---|---|
| Notable Changes | Recent activity looks meaningfully different from the home's usual patterns | Review the category scores and daily timeline, then decide on an action |
| Some Changes | A smaller shift | Lighter review, and keep an eye on it over coming weeks |
| Maintaining | Consistent with normal | Typically no action needed |
| No Score | Not enough data yet, or something needs fixing | Check the card for the reason. |
A home has to learn the resident’s own patterns before it can tell you anything has changed. Until it has, expect this:
Each home is scored across three areas, which combine into the overall tier behind the scenes.
Sleep-related metrics. Needs a valid sleep block: a continuous 30 minutes in bed between midnight and 4am.
Movement, and time spent in bed or on the couch.
Bathroom zone visits, as overnight and 24-hour counts.
Open the demo portal alongside this guide and follow the steps below on the Wellness dashboard.
↗Home care demo portaldemo.pontosense.com/home-care ↗Senior living demo portaldemo.pontosense.com/senior-livingThis takes no more than 5 to 10 minutes a day, depending on how many homes have changed.
If you see a home move into a higher category, click into that home.
Scroll through the home to find the source of the change. In this case, the Overnight Rest category has an unusual metric.
Under Overnight Rest, look for the metric that is flagged. In this case, bedtime was 8:07 PM, which is flagged as 2h 1min earlier than usual.
Click into the metric to see its history. In this case, he was quite consistently going to bed later, around 9 to 10 PM, but went to bed the last night at 8:07 PM, earlier than usual.
Talk it through with your care team or caregivers. What is the right plan of action? Was he tired during the day and went to bed early? Did he have any pain? Your agency can decide the next steps in what to do once you discover a change like this.
Using Silver Shield day to day
Installation is done and the sensors are running. This is what you set up next: who gets access, and what they get told about.
Go to the Admin dropdown, then Manage users, then Create new.
The access level you give someone decides what they can see and what they can change, so it is worth being deliberate rather than defaulting everyone to the same thing.
| Access level | Who it is for | What they can do |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | Your own team, the people running the program. | Everything, including the Admin dropdown: homes, devices, alerts, residents, users and groups. |
| User | Staff who work with specific homes. Families, if you want them to be able to change alerts, zones and settings. | See only their homes. Use the wellness dashboard on web. Change alerts, room configurations and settings for those homes. |
| User (view only) | Families who don’t change alerts or settings themselves. | See only their homes. No wellness dashboard on web. Cannot change alerts, settings or configuration. |
Managing and adding a user.
Go to the Admin dropdown, then Manage alerts, then Add new.
For each alert you set three things:
Setting up an activity alert.
In the mobile app each user can adjust their own alerts for falls, prolonged falls, recovery from falls, and device alerts. Worth knowing, because a user can switch off something you configured for them.
Using Silver Shield day to day
How alerts work, documenting a fall, and what to do afterwards.
Fall alerts automatically send push notifications to everyone who has the app and is a user of the home.
You can also set up SMS escalation alerts for people who don’t have the app but want to be notified. They only receive a text message when a fall occurs. You can add up to 3 emergency contacts for SMS escalation, and each one has 3 minutes to cancel or confirm the alert before the next person is alerted. Steps are in Configuring SMS alerts.
Setting up SMS emergency contacts in the app.
Fall alerts are sent 90 seconds after the sensor first detects a possible fall. The delay gives it time to rule out fall-like motion, such as bending to the floor. See Adjusting fall detection delay.
Talk to the family about their options for fall alerts. Make sure they understand them, and have a plan for who will respond if an alert comes through.
You can also let the family know they can bypass Do Not Disturb by turning on critical alerts in their phone settings. This can be useful at night, so they still hear the notification.
Other activity alerts, such as bed exits and room exits or entries, are off by default and need to be turned on for each home. See Setting up users and alerts.
After a fall event, the app will ask for the outcome of the fall. It is helpful to ask the family or staff to:
Marking each event helps keep the data consistent between you and your clients.
Reviewing a fall event and marking it true, false, or not sure.
Your care team may not be the one responding to every fall alert. In many home care programs the family gets there first. You can still review the fall history and use it to adjust their care.
In senior living, your on-site staff will usually be the ones responding. Afterwards, review the fall history and use it to adjust the resident’s care.
Looking at several falls together can show why they are happening. Read the history for what repeats:
Use any pattern you find to adjust the care plan, change the hours you cover, or put support exactly where the resident needs it most, so the next fall is less likely, and less likely to be serious.
It also gives you something specific to discuss with the family, for example: “This has happened three times, always around 2am on the way to the bathroom.”
Using Silver Shield day to day
This step is done at the installation stage, but it's important to make sure zoning and calibration stay up to date.
Make this a known ask with your client.
Beds, sofas, recliners, chairs, dining sets. Furniture without a zone is a common cause of false alerts.
Zoning room boundaries accurately is important to prevent false alerts and issues with activity near the edges and corners of rooms.
Steps: Zoning furniture and Calibrating a room.
Zoning beds and couches.
The height you measure and enter in the app must be the height to the bottom of the device. The device’s own dimensions are already factored in. An incorrect height can cause missed falls, false fall alerts and other detection issues, so it is worth confirming at install and re-checking any time a device is remounted.
Using Silver Shield day to day
A spouse, a live-in caregiver, a visiting relative, a pet. This changes what the data means, and it's behind a large share of the confusing events support sees.
Silver Shield does not distinguish which occupant triggered an event, if there is more than one person in a room. If there are two or more individuals in a home, you may need to work out who a change belongs to before acting on it.
Silver Shield can’t tell you whose behaviour is changing, but it can tell you that someone’s is, and that is still worth a check-in.
Using Silver Shield day to day
In some situations, Silver Shield may send a false alert or miss a fall because of the room layout, how the sensor is set up, or what is happening in the room. This section covers the known limitations, what to expect, and how to keep the system working as well as it can.
Pontosense’s fall detection filters out as many false alerts as it can, but you may still see one occasionally.
So that you know what to look for in advance, the table below sets out the common triggers that may cause a false alert in a home. If you are aware of any of these in a home and are receiving false alerts, please notify your CSM or the support team as soon as possible and we can provide a resolution.
| Trigger | What you see | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Recliners | Repeated missed falls or false alerts around the recliner area. The recliner can cause some unexpected behaviour as it opens and closes. | We typically recommend zoning the recliner to its full extended length to avoid false positives when residents get in and out of it. However, there is a trade-off to be aware of: once zoned to full length, a fall close to the recliner, inside the couch zone, may be missed. Pontosense recommendation: zone recliners as safely as possible. Make sure the family and staff are aware of the two options and the trade-offs between them. Depending on what they know about the resident’s behaviour and patterns, one may be preferred over the other. |
| Unzoned furniture | False falls around a sofa, chair or dining set with no zone on it. | Zone all significant furniture. Furniture without a zone is a common cause of false alerts. |
| Doorways and curtains | Events from a room nobody is in, or "leaving room" alerts. | Check room boundaries match the real walls and doorways, then re-calibrate |
| Pets | Unexpected fall alerts, especially with more than one active pet in the home. | Report so support can review the home. |
| Wheelchair transfers | False alerts when transferring to or moving in a wheelchair; location may also read inaccurately. | Expected behaviour. Flag the home so expectations are set. |
| Stale zoning | False events starting after furniture moved. | Re-zone against the room as it is now. See Zoning and calibration |
The sensor may flag these because they look like a fall. They aren’t falls, but they may still be worth checking in on:
These factors can affect detection performance. Be aware of them so expectations can be set with the family in advance:
| Scenario | Effect |
|---|---|
| Walkers | Falls involving a walker may be detected at lower rates. Report any missed fall so accuracy can continue to improve. |
| Seated, side and rolling falls | May be detected at lower rates. |
| Shared rooms | Decide which data makes most sense to analyse, in collaboration with Pontosense. |
Some falls will not trigger an alert. These are the circumstances where that is expected rather than a fault:
Filing one will come back with the same answer: the event is outside the current scope of the algorithm. If you have feedback on any of these scenarios, raise it with your customer success manager instead. The algorithms are updated over time, and some of these may be supported in future.
Anything else that was missed is worth reporting. See How to report a detection issue.
Firmware releases carry detection and performance improvements, so a home running an older version may not be performing as well as it could. Ensure you are updating firmware with every release. You can also enable automatic firmware updates so this happens without manual intervention.
Where to check a device's firmware version, and where automatic updates are enabled.
When something looks wrong
There are two separate ways to report a detection issue, depending on what happened.
A fall happened, but no alert came through.
Report it in the platform, through the Alerts Control Center.
A fall alert came through, but no fall happened. Send an email to support@pontosense.com with the following information:
The client and home where the alert occurred.
The room where the alert came from.
The sensor serial number, for example: ATR_GN_P4-…
As accurate as possible. If it has happened more than once, list each occurrence separately, and double-check AM/PM.
Always state it, even if it seems obvious.
Anything relevant about the environment: number of occupants, pets, unusual room layouts, reflective surfaces, and known potential triggers.
These details are important for us to do a proper analysis. If any of them are missing, it will delay our response.
If the room contains a known potential trigger, such as a recliner, a pet, or line-of-sight through an open doorway, include that information in the report. These details can be important in understanding what caused the alert.
A fall happened, but no alert came through. Missed falls are reported directly in the platform, not by email. Report it as soon as you are aware, since we review the data while it is fresh, and submit one report per event rather than several falls together.
These two checks can often explain the issue immediately and are faster to verify before submitting a report.
If the sensor was offline when the fall occurred, it could not have detected the event.
If a user marked an alert as No Fall, the alert is cleared from the system. This can later appear to be a missed fall even though the fall detection was triggered successfully.
Go to pc.pontosense.com, open the Alerts Control Center, and select Report Missed Fall.
Enter the home, the room, the date and time of the fall, and the timezone. You can also add additional information in the optional Notes field. Then select Check Detected Events.
Use the time the resident fell, not when they were found, and be as exact as you can. This is the most useful detail in the report. If you are estimating, say so in Notes and give a window.
The platform will check whether a fall event was detected around the time you entered. If a relevant event appears, select the matching event and press Confirm Selected Event As Missed Fall.
If the platform displays No Events Found, you can either go back and adjust the location or time details, or select No Matches Found - Report Missed Fall Anyways to submit the missed-fall report for further investigation.
Video tutorial
Reporting a missed fall, start to finish.
Include any additional context that may help with the investigation, particularly:
Fall duration and recovery method are important pieces of information when reviewing a missed-fall event.
To be verified with the CS team.
Silver Shield training portal
This is a guided walkthrough of everything you need to offer Silver Shield successfully, from understanding the product to running it day to day. Work through it in order, or jump to the stage you need.
Which setting are you in?
You can change your setting at any time from the bar at the top. Your progress is saved in this browser.