STICKY SITUATION:

German scientists have developed a walking stick that calls for an ambulance if the owner falls over. The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Development in Kaiserslautern invented the "I-Stick" to help elderly people. If a sensor in the I-Stick registers that it is in a horizontal position, the result of someone falling over, it sends a signal to a control unit, which plays a message telling the owner to pick it up. If the stick remains on the floor, the control box is programmed to call an ambulance or a chosen relative. The I-Stick is yet to hit stores, but its inventors are looking for a distributor.