Abstract
The spinal column requires special care through exercises focused on muscle strengthening, flexibility, and mobility to minimize the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders that may affect the quality of life. Guidelines for spinal column exercises are commonly presented through printed and multimedia guides accompanied with demonstrations performed by a physiotherapist, occupational health expert, or physical fitness trainer. However, existing guides lack interaction and oral explanations may not always be clear to the user, leading to decreased engagement and motivation to start, continue, or complete an exercise program. In this article, we present two interactive and engaging posture-tracking user interfaces intended to promote proper spinal column exercise form. One user interface employs a wooden manikin with an integrated inertial measurement unit to provide a tangible user interaction. The other user interface presents a mobile application that provides instructions and explanations about the exercises. Both user interfaces allow recording key postures during the exercise for reference and feedback. We compared the usability of the interfaces through a series of flexion and extension exercises, monitored with an inertial measuring unit worn around the torso, and a Microsoft Kinect V2 vision-based sensor. Although no significant differences between the manikin user interface and the mobile application were found in terms of usability, the inertial measurement unit provided more accurate and reliable data in comparison to the Microsoft Kinect V2 as a result of body occlusions in front of the sensor caused during the torso flexion. Although both user interfaces provide different experiences and performed well, we believe that a combination of both will improve user engagement and motivation, while providing a more accurate motion profile.
Highlights
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) denote health problems of the locomotor apparatus involving muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, and nerves.[1]
virtual reality (VR) provides the opportunity to engage and motivate the user, and when it is applied to self-healthcare activities such as daily physical exercise, rehabilitation processes, and physiotherapy-based exercises, it can positively impact the quality of life, depression, body functionality, among others.[33,34,35,36,37]
Previous work related to occupational health care is based on the design and development of virtual environments for training purposes
Summary
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) denote health problems of the locomotor apparatus involving muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, and nerves.[1]. Exercise programs using printed guides, videos, and multimedia have been used to educate people about the importance of proper health care through physical activity, with particular focus on MSD prevention.[10] Currently, new technologies are providing engaging forms of physical activity using motion capture, game-based systems with achievements, social networks, and consumer-grade devices (e.g. smartphones, wearables, and gaming user interfaces (UIs) such as the Microsoft Kinect, the Sony PlayStation Move, or the Nintendo Switch motion controllers).[11,12]. We present the development and evaluation of two posture-tracking UIs to demonstrate proper back posture exercises These UIs are presented as a complementary tool to traditional media based on printed guides and oral explanations with the goal of providing clearer and engaging forms of lower-back exercising. A discussion of the results, concluding remarks, and plans for future work are presented in the ‘‘Discussion and conclusion’’ section
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