Posture Feedback System with Wearable Speaker.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Wearable Technology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Maintaining good posture during digital device use is crucial for preventing computer vision syndrome and text neck syndrome.
• Awareness of posture during activities like using laptops and smartphones is challenging.
• Wearable systems offer a potential solution for real-time posture feedback.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel posture feedback system using a commercial wearable speaker.
• To estimate user posture by measuring eye-to-screen distance for laptops and neck tilt for smartphones.
• To provide immediate auditory feedback to users when poor posture is detected.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a commercial wearable speaker and a microphone on a laptop or smartphone for active sensing.
• Employed ultrasound to estimate the distance between the speaker and microphone (eye-to-screen distance) and the angle (neck tilt).
• Implemented audio signal processing as a web application for easy user access and integrated auditory feedback with digital audio effects.

Main Results:

• The system accurately estimated the distance and angle between the wearable speaker and microphone.
• Sound pressure variations correlated with changes in distance and angle, enabling posture assessment.
• The system achieved nearly 100% accuracy in judging good or poor posture under experimental conditions.

Conclusions:

• The proposed wearable system effectively monitors and provides feedback on posture during laptop and smartphone use.
• The active sensing method using ultrasound is feasible for real-time posture estimation.
• This system has the potential to mitigate posture-related issues like computer vision syndrome and text neck syndrome.