A wearable embedded device for chronic low back patients to track lumbar spine position

Abstract

In present scenario, people always work in an enclosed environment where they sit in the bend posture that causes severe damage in lumbar spine. According to the survey of World Health Organization, around the world 500,000 to 800,000 people are suffering from spinal cord injury (SCI). In that about 53% of the people who are aged between 16 and 30 suffer from chronic low back pain. A new wearable device which consists of miniature gyroscope and accelerometer are used in detecting the voluntary action of lumbar spine in the proposed system. The proposed system consists of a vibrator, Bluetooth element, a microcontroller and an android application. The vibrator motor is used to intimate the improper sitting position of the person. A Bluetooth element is used in transmitting the data from the module and the android application that runs on smart phone. It records the analyzed data of the sensor. A microcontroller is used to control the overall working of the designed system. The capability of this cost effective, simple device is capable to measure the lumbar spine position with the efficiency of 95% and provide a feedback to the user.