Smart blanket: A real-time user posture sensing approach for ergonomic designs

Abstract

We present a pervasive sensing system in the form of a wireless smart blanket that unobtrusively monitors people’s posture on ergonomic design chairs by covering the back piece of the chair and measuring the pressure profile of the user’s back. The sensor system has 1024 sensitive points, covering 48-by-48 cm2 area. With simple and efficient classification algorithm, we reach around 80% among 10 postures, including lordotic and kyphotic lumber spine on different degrees, and lean to the sides on different degrees. The web browser based user interface offers timely and reprogrammable intervention from the user’s posture history.