How Nobi Smart Lights are detecting patient falls without cameras

When you think of fall prevention, you may remember the Life Alert commercial: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” But those devices are far from the only tools on the market to support older adults.

By 2030, 1 in 6 people around the world will be 60 or older. With a growing aging population, resources are needed to ensure healthy living, including new technology like Belgium-based Nobi Smart Lights.

Founded in 2018, the company has a light device that can detect and prevent falls in the home while aesthetically blending into the space. In January 2025, its most recent funding round, the company raised a $37 million Series B.

Nobi is meant to be “functional” yet something “that people not only would need, but really want to have in their homes,” Stijn Verrept, co-founder and chief technology officer, told us.

The problem. Over 14 million (about 1 in 4) adults over 65 report a fall every year, according to the CDC.

“Falls are one of the leading causes of injury among older adults, which is why AARP has made fall prevention a long-standing advocacy issue priority,” Megan O’Reilly, AARP’s VP of government affairs for health and family, told us via email. “Thoughtful use of technology can complement these efforts.”

But Verrept said most technology is invasive, like cameras, or “ugly.”

“Some of the solutions are basically mounting a camera in the corner of a room with wires going up to the wall and then pointing that at a resident,” he said. “We really wanted to have something that blends in the environment.”

The solution. Once turned on, Verrept said Nobi turns a “dumb room into a smart room.”

The light can detect where furniture is and where people are in the room, including if they’re on the floor. If the light detects a potential fall, it will ask the person if they need help and contact their designated care team as needed.

The company is piloting the technology in patient homes, but it is currently only being used in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Other companies, like FallCall Solutions, are also looking to prevent injuries, but through wearables rather than a light.

Prevention. The device works using vision AI, which derives information from images, Verrept said, and only collects data in the cloud if a person has fallen. The data is then deleted after 14 days. It does this to maintain privacy and also for staff to learn how to prevent future falls.

“Fall detection is an important one because we dramatically reduce the time of intervention, so we basically make sure that nobody has to lie on the floor for hours. Even better is doing fall prevention,” Verrept said.

Nobi has a couple methods to prevent falls. For one, it can light up a room when someone sits up in bed to make sure they aren’t moving around in the dark.

Additionally, the light can detect how long a patient is receiving care to make sure providers are spending enough time with them. These providers wear smart badges that can follow movement and alert other staff of things like whether they need more support with a patient, for example.

“That allows the care staff sufficient time to do their analysis to see if there was possible head trauma or not” as well as “how the fall occurred” and whether an “evaluation needs to be done,” Verrept said.