Direct Posture Tracing Sensor
You may have heard that good posture is essential for good health, but do you know why? Posture refers to how you position your body when you’re sitting, standing, or lying down.
Your posture is the result of habits formed over the course of years. Many people may recognize poor posture in others without realizing how their own falls short. If you look around at co-workers at the office, you’ll likely find them hunched over at their desks. Learn why good posture matters — and what you can do to improve yours!
Benefits of correct sitting posture
1. Better breathing
Research shows that poor posture negatively affects your ability to breathe deeply and fill your lungs. Slouching shortens the muscles at the front of your body and reduces your ability to breathe in fully. Sitting up straight improves your ability to bring in oxygen by as much as 30%.
2. Back relief
Your body is designed to stand in a “neutral” position in which your pelvis, head, and torso are in a stacked position. Over the long term, this stress causes pain — usually in your back. When you have good posture, you use the muscles that support your spine properly so your body — especially your back — feels better.
3. Improved mood
Your posture affects your mood. It reduces headaches and keeps you energetic throughout the day. Dropping your head and drooping your shoulders can create unnecessary tension that contributes to headaches. Research shows that people who have a posture featuring a forward head tend to have more headaches.
Disadvantages of bad posture
- Cardiovascular Health
Did you know that slouching can even affect your cardiovascular health? The same pressure that it puts on your stomach also squeezes your heart and lungs. Poor posture impairs circulation, which makes it harder for your heart to do its important work.
2. Back Pain
It’s probably no surprise that changing your spine’s natural curves will cause back pain. Most people experience back pain as one of the effects of bad posture, such as when they slouch in front of the computer.
3. Poor circulation
If you sit in chair for hours a day with poor posture, you’re at risk of developing or worsening circulation issues, preventing your body from getting the necessary circulation it needs.
What is our project?
We have made a hardware posture detection device that tells the user to sit in a correct position using the pressure principle.
In this project we have used 3 force sensors-which are connected to the chair and when they are not touched by the person’s back, it is recognized as wrong posture. This is indicated by 3 buzzers each connected to the force sensors and start buzzing at bad posture. A vibration motor is used to vibrate when there is only partial contact with the force sensors.
The LCD display is used to count the seconds for which the person sat in the correct posture. The Arduino UNO can read the inputs from the sensors and controls the overall functioning of the circuit. Serial communication is used to connect the hardware to the computer.
Future work and conclusions
· We look forward to creating a software mobile application in which the user gets a text message/sound reminder whenever the person slouches. An analysis of the person’s sitting time can be done and tips to maintain right posture can be given.
· An additional feature can be to give an alert message when the person has been sitting for too long, reminding the user to stand up and walk for a bit.
· If the user finds difficulty to correct their posture even with the alerts, medical advice can be provided through the app.
Newolf Society’s icebreaker 4.1 event has helped us ideate and initiate this posture sensor project. We have learnt a lot about IOT and serial communications within a span of 2 weeks and also had a great time participating in this event. We hope to improvise our project in the future.
GitHub link- GitHub — rayehaarika597/a-DIRECT-POSTURE-TRACING-SENSOR-
Done by
Krishna Mehta
Joyen
Raye Haarika
Vaishali GaneshKumar
