Design and Analytics of Smart Posture Monitoring System

Abstract

Instances of low-back pain in people of all ages is one of the most common issues in the world. Over 50% of the world population report of being affected by low-back pain at least once a year. It is therefore of paramount importance for individuals to realize the necessity and importance of a proper sitting posture, to interact and work in an ergonomically supportive environment. With the advent of the Internet of Things, it is now evident that communication technology coupled with the mechanics of the seating device can help produce meaningful insights, and help in undertaking data-driven decisions. There have been various attempts at designing “smart chairs”. These smart chairs in addition to the above mentioned functionalities, can also be deployed as robust health-monitoring systems. Using embedded sensors within, these chairs can function as an alert mechanism to the user, when he/she is sitting with an incorrect posture, that could be detrimental to the physical health of the individual. In this paper, the researchers conduct a comprehensive analysis of the existing products, by a customer survey and propose a solution that could potentially serve the people with back pain to use the proposed chair: embedded with sensors, and supplemented by data analytics. The system designed is a cost-effective low-power consuming posture monitoring system, that simultaneously works as an accurate health monitoring system as well.