Design and development of a posture monitoring seat backrest using an electro-textile sensor matrix

Abstract

Lower back pain is one of the most common prevalent spinal diseases, where up to 84 percent of adults are reported to experience pain within their lifetime (Ninds.nih.gov., 2016). As reported, bad or incorrect postures are one of the major contributing factors for this condition.This MPhil report describes the design and development of the technology for a textile-based posture monitoring system by using a sensor matrix combined with accelerometers. The proposed system references the pressure distribution resulting from a human back when leaning against a soft backrest, on which a network of pressure sensors and accelerometers are placed. Therefore, the sensor system can evaluate the local curvature of the lumbar spine arch, allowing a clinician to advice on the posture. Posture feedback data from this system can benefit people who are suffering progressive degeneration of the spine disc.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Anura Fernando (Supervisor) & Jayawan Wijekoon (Supervisor)