Organizations: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, 33100, Pirkanmaa, Finland. · School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, 80101, North Karelia, Finland.
Abstract
Poor posture is a significant concern due to its detrimental effects on health and productivity. This paper presents a collar-clipped device called PostureClip, designed to restrict users from sitting and working at a bent angle, by blacking out the screen and resuming on correcting posture, thereby promoting better posture. The device integrates sensors and feedback mechanisms to provide real-time posture feedback to users. To evaluate the effectiveness of PostureClip, a controlled experiment was conducted with participants (n=165) who were working on a laptop/PC for over 6 hours per day. The participants were randomly assigned to both the intervention group (IG1,n=54 ; IG2,n=55), which used the collar-clipped device, and the control group (CG, n=56), which did not use the device. IG1 didn't get feedback while IG2 got feedback from the device by notifying and further darkening the screen. The study was conducted in the office environment of the participants, for 4 weeks, and metrics such as posture angle, duration of bent angle, and user feedback were collected. Analysis revealed significant improvements in posture angle (p<0.001) and significant reduction in bent angle duration (p<0.01) for participants' group using PostureClip with feedback and compared to the group without feedback and the control group (who were not intervened). The qualitative analysis of user feedback highlighted the device's ease of use, effectiveness in providing timely feedback, and positive impact on participants' awareness and habits regarding posture. These results indicate that PostureClip is an effective tool for promoting better posture during sedentary work.
The effectiveness of a soft wearable back-support device in enhancing postural stability was investigated under trip-like perturbations using two experimental paradigms: perturbed standing and perturbed walking. Healthy subjects completed trials under three different back-support conditions: no device, device worn with low stiffness, and device activated with high stiffness. Whole-body stability was quantified using the minimum Margin of Stability (MOS) at the point of maximal instability. Results demonstrated increased MOS during device use, indicating enhanced postural stability. In standing, MOS increased significantly with device stiffness, whereas in walking, both device conditions improved MOS relative to no device but did not differ significantly from each other. These findings highlight the potential of soft wearable back-support devices with adjustable stiffness to improve reactive balance control against external perturbations, with important implications for fall prevention. Future research should explore personalized stiffness optimization and evaluate efficacy in populations at elevated risk of falls.
Older adults are particularly susceptible to falls following perturbations during standing, such as forward loss of balance. Back support devices that assist trunk extension may help mitigate fall risk by preventing excessive trunk flexion. Previous studies have investigated heavy back support devices; however, these systems often introduced adverse effects on stability due to their added mass, which shifted the body's natural center of mass unfavorably. In contrast, lightweight passive devices have shown limited benefits, as they can generate only modest assistive forces during the relatively small trunk flexion associated with forward balance loss. In this study, we evaluated the effects of a lightweight semi-active soft back support device on postural stability following standing perturbations. Our device combines an active element (a pneumatic artificial muscle) in parallel with a passive elastic band. The active element rapidly provides assistive force following a perturbation, overcoming the limitations of passive devices. Experiments conducted with five healthy individuals demonstrated that the semi-active device significantly reduced whole-body angular momentum and increased the margin of stability, indicating improved balance recovery performance. These results highlight the promise of semi-active soft wearable robots as an effective and lightweight strategy for fall prevention during standing perturbations.
Posture is a critical factor for beginning instrumental learners. Most students receive instruction only once a week, and during the intervals between lessons they have little or no feedback on their physical posture. As a result, posture often deteriorates, increasing the risk of musculoskeletal injury and inefficient technique. Recent advances in computer vision and machine learning make it possible to evaluate posture without the constant presence of a human expert. However, current solutions have been extremely limited in availability and convenience due to their reliance on computationally expensive hardware or multi-sensor setups. We present Cello Evaluator, a real-time postural feedback system for practicing cellists. Through this optimization for on-device computer vision inference, we provide access to cellist postural evaluation to anyone with a current generation Android phone and thus reduces the postural feedback voids within individual practice. To validate our mobile application, we conduct a heuristic evaluation consisting of cellist and UX experts. Overall feedback from the evaluation found the app to be user friendly and helpful.