  Back pain is one of the leading causes of disability-adjusted life year
globally and the most common cause of low back pain is poor sitting posture.
There are several actions that can be adopted proactively to avoid poor sitting
posture induced back pain including behavioral change, regular exercise, and
use of an ergonomic chair. However, these are either expensive and/or difficult
to execute for prolonged periods. Sitting posture monitoring systems
continuously observe the sitting pattern of a person in real-time and give
feedback/alert poor sitting posture is observed. In this study, a real-time
posture monitoring system has been designed and a functional prototype has been
developed using simple electrical elements and an android application.
Appropriate position of the sensor in the spine to measure the degree of
bending and the threshold sensor values for good posture sittings have been
determined based on the results from healthy volunteers of different ages and
height. The android application continuously monitors the degree of bending and
provides vibration when the bending reaches the threshold of bad posture or the
duration of the sitting crosses the clinically recommended time limit to
prevent prolonged sitting. Positive user feedback has been received in terms of
comfortability, effectiveness, and satisfaction levels. The manufacturing cost
of the developed monitoring system is minimal compared to the available
expensive systems in the market and the cost would further go down if it is
produced in bulk. This device efficiently monitors the sitting posture pattern
to prevent back pain and within the affordable price range for the people from
middle to under-developed countries.
