Magnet integrated shirt for upper body posture detection using wearable magnetic sensors

Abstract

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has caused an increase in remote work. Sitting in various positions at home without the proper back support is undesirable and can cause chronic back pain and other undesired side effects. Therefore, a new non-intrusive method to continuously monitor back postures in homes is proposed. A shirt is designed with integrated magnets. A magnetic sensor would be placed above the body's sternum, and magnets will be implemented on a shirt. The sensor will help ascertain the back posture position (straight or curved) and help provide feedback to mend the posture if deformed. In this paper, the initial results using the proposed system are presented using a wearable sensor system with a magnet integrated garment that can continuously monitor the varying sitting postures throughout daily lives. In addition, we discuss how the lower body posture affects the magnetic recording otherwise not detectable using the accelerometer-based systems currently available on the market.