A prototype of a wireless wearable posture monitoring and training device with an interactive software for exercising core muscles

• Main Authors: Gan, Michelle Co, Liang, Shyr-Yi Maria Veronica, Obciana, Angelica May M., Policarpio, Charles Janoah G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Biosensors; Posture disorders > Prevention > Software; Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6377
• Institution: De La Salle University

Poor posture is the biggest contributor to low back pain which is the leading cause of disability worldwide. When left uncorrected, poor posture can lead to reduced breathing volume, nerve and blood constriction, chronic back pain, abnormal spinal curvature and many other health issues. This is especially prevalent in sedentary individuals such as office workers, hobbyists, practitioners and many others who sit majority of the day. Based from local study, an average office worker sits for at least 6 hours a day and around 80% have experienced low back pain. The most common reasons for feeling pain were sitting for long hours and slouching. In fact, children as early as 7 years of age are already suffering from back problems due to poor posture. As the number of sedentary individuals continue to grow and as people's lives become increasingly idle over time, a need for a posture trainer arises to help this growing number of individuals minimize, if not eliminate, bad postural habits. To address the problem, the team created BackUp, a prototype of a wireless wearable posture monitoring and training device that alerts the user when he deviates from the calibrated good posture. This comes with a software where users get to exercise their core muscles and check their posture training progress. The device's posture training aspect was found to work 99.5% of the time in different body types and 99.45% for the game aspect. 95% of respondents said that the game encouraged them to exercise. Posture improvement measured through an increase in total time in good posture is estimated to be at least 15% with BackUp.