Garment Integrated Spinal Posture Detection Using Wearable Magnetic Sensors

Spine Curvature Disorder (SCD) is a medical condition that affects the shape of the spine. Methods of monitoring SCDs involve visual inspection followed by X-rays and measurements. Once a patient is diagnosed with SCD and treatment or therapy is implemented, progress is tracked by exposing the patient to multiple periodic X-rays to determine the spine responses to treatments or therapies. Multiple exposures to X-rays is not desirable and is also costly. Therefore, we propose a new method for detecting and monitoring SCD and present our initial research results. We are implementing a non-invasive method that can detect and monitor the spinal postures of SCD. Magnets are placed on a shirt a grid form then a sensor system would be placed on the chest of the body. An on-body magnetic sensor records the sensor data values to determine if the upper body posture is straight or is curved which in turn can assist in detecting if the spine is deformed. We present our initial results on magnetic sensor testing and preliminary results using wearable sensors and a garment integrated magnetic shirt.