Wearable Posture Monitoring System with Biofeedback via Smartphone

Abstract

In this paper a novel portable posture monitoring and feedback system is proposed. System is designed to be unobtrusively used during daily activities and provide alternative solution to traditional bracing used in treatment of scoliosis. System consists of wearable sensor network for posture data acquisition, wireless data transmission and conventional smartphone for data processing, visualization and vibrating feedback generation. Special data acquisition board is designed for data sampling from sensor network and wireless transmission to smartphone. A custom made Android application is used for real time data processing, current posture model visualization, data logging and instantaneous feedback. System was tested for posture monitoring and feedback generation on multiple test subjects. Tests demonstrated systems effectiveness on improving posture related behavior and ability to help subject to hold specific reference posture performing similar task as traditional bracing.

Smart Indication System for Spinal Cord Stress Detection

“…An IoT based biomedical parameters monitoring system using sensors was developed specially to alert the cardiac attacks [10]. A wearable posture monitoring device with biofeedback via smartphone system is verified for posture observing and feedback collection on multiple test topics [14]. Many attempts to measure human posture made using 3D inclination dimensions from accelerometers that gives tiny, low-power sensors that theoretically integrates with garments [15].…”

Smartphone Based Cervical Spine Stress Prevention

“…Smartphone approaches make use of applications (known as "apps") to improve the user's posture. however, the ease-of-use and comfort are significantly reduced [7]. Similarly, The application of the sensors was limited to the postures like sitting, standing, walking only.…”

Smart textiles for wearable sensor networks: Review and early lessons

“…While working on smart clothing for body shape detection [27][28] (with specific medical goals of providing biofeedback for treatment of conditions such as scoliosis [7]) work has been done to implement the requirements previously mentioned and to test whether they can be implemented now or are there still some areas that require further research. The current smart textile prototype contains 63 sensor nodes connected in a line topology [29] with four wires from one node to the next (Fig.…”

“…The evidence for beneficial applications of wearable computing can be found in many different fields, such as medicine [1] from early detection [2][3] [4] [5] to treatment [6] [7], care for the elderly [8] [9][10] and frail [11], exercise [12][13] [14], mental health [15], entertainment [16] [17] and potentially many others.…”

“…A different approach is to embed non-fabric-like sensors into textile allowing them to be worn, such as inertial measurement units for posture monitoring [7] or electrodes for ECG readings [24].…”