Low-Cost Wireless Wearable System for Posture Monitoring

Abstract

Posture monitoring aiming at preventing many of the pathologies affecting the spine is becoming more and more essential in many contexts, including telemedicine. The market pushes towards the development of new technical solutions that are comfortable for the user and that are increasingly becoming lower in terms of cost. Some systems at the state of the art level are effective and sometimes quite comfortable, but they have a degree of complexity that is not compatible with some market segments. Here, we report on the development, at a prototype level, a simple, low-cost, and potentially very comfortable microcontroller-based system capable of signaling incorrect postures with great sensitivity. The prototype, which has been tested also using video analysis, has shown its capacity to be easily integrated into a garment. Experimental activity has proven the prototype’s functionality. The wearable embedded system is able to detect flections in the back region monitored by the flex sensor with an accuracy of <3°. The achievement represents a further demonstration of the potential of wearable electronics in the context of cyber-physical systems for healthcare.