Man-down alarm (fall detection)
A man-down alarm, also called fall detection, automatically raises an alert when a device detects a fall, sudden impact, or prolonged lack of movement - without the worker pressing anything.
Most duress systems assume the worker can act. Man-down protection covers the scenarios where they can't: a fall from height, a medical event, an assault that leaves them unconscious. Motion sensors watch for the signature of a fall or an impact followed by stillness, and trigger the alarm on the worker's behalf.
Automatic triggers matter more than most buyers assume. In the FY26 Duress monitoring data, 17.7% of all activations were raised by the system rather than the worker - fall detection, missed check-ins and expired safety timers firing when nobody pressed anything.
Good implementations tune out false triggers (a dropped device is not a fallen worker) and pair detection with a fast human response. Detection without response is just a sensor.