Spine Cop: Posture Correction Monitor and Assistant

• Main Authors: Pedro Ribeiro, Ana Rita Soares, Rafael Girão, Miguel Neto, Susana Cardoso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: ergonomics; wearable device; posture; accelerometer; magnetometer
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/18/5376

Back and spine-related issues are frequent maladies that most people have or will experience during their lifetime. A common and sensible observation that can be made is regarding the posture of an individual. We present a new approach that combines accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer sensor data in combination with permanent magnets assembled as a wearable device capable of real-time spine posture monitoring. An independent calibration of the device is required for each user. The sensor data is processed by a probabilistic classification algorithm that compares the real-time data with the calibration result, verifying whether the data point lies within regions of confidence defined by a computed threshold. An incorrect posture classification is considered if both accelerometer and magnetometer classify the posture as incorrect. A pilot trial was performed in a single adult test subject. The combination of the magnets and magnetometer greatly improved the posture classification accuracy (89%) over the accuracy obtained when only accelerometer data were used (47%). The validation of this method was based on image analysis.