DistillH-Mamba: A Hypergraph-Mamba-Based Knowledge Distillation Model for Efficient Impact Fall Detection

Falls among the elderly represent a significant public health concern due to their prevalence, consequences, and societal burden. While deep learning has improved fall detection, accurately identifying impact moments (when an individual hits the ground) remains challenging. Additionally, current algorithms often rely on complex models with high computational demands, limiting real-time deployment feasibility. In this work, we propose DistillH-Mamba, a novel architecture for impact fall detection that addresses these challenges through three key innovations: First, we introduce a hypergraph-based approach that captures higher-order relationships between multiple joints simultaneously, enabling more accurate modeling of complex interactions during impact falls. Second, we integrate the Mamba architecture with hypergraphs for impact detection, significantly accelerating processing speed while efficiently capturing both long-term dependencies and sudden skeletal motion changes. Third, we employ relational knowledge distillation that preserves crucial spatial-temporal relationships while reducing computational demands for real-time impact fall detection. Evaluated on the 3D Skeletons UP-Fall and UMAFall datasets, our DistillH-Mamba model achieves 97.38% accuracy in detecting impact within fall events and 73.8% reduction in inference time compared to its teacher model, outperforming state-of-the-art methods in both precision and efficiency.