A MultiParametric Wearable System to Monitor Neck Movements and Respiratory Frequency of Computer Workers Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common form of occupational illhealth. Neck pain is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal disorders experienced by computer workers. Wrong postural habits and noncompliance of the workstation to ergonomics guidelines are the leading causes of neck pain. These factors may also alter respiratory functions. Health and safety interventions can reduce neck pain and, more generally, the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders and reduce the consequent economic burden. In this work, a multiparametric wearable system based on two fiber Bragg grating sensors is proposed for monitoring neck movements and breathing activity of computer workers. The sensing elements were positioned on the neck, in the frontal and sagittal planes, to monitor: (i) flexionextension and axial rotation repetitions, and (ii) respiratory frequency. In this pilot study, five volunteers were enrolled and performed five repetitions of both flexionextension and axial rotation, and ten breaths of both quite breathing and tachypnea. Results showed the good performances of the proposed system in monitoring the aforementioned parameters when compared to optical reference systems. The wearable system is able to wellmatch the trend in time of the neck movements (both flexionextension and axial rotation) and to estimate mean and breathbybreath respiratory frequency values with percentage errors xe2x89xa46.09% and xe2x89xa41.90%, during quiet breathing and tachypnea, respectively.

Wearable Device to Monitor Back Movements Using an Inductive Textile Sensor Low back pain (LBP) is the most common workrelated musculoskeletal disorder among healthcare workers and is directly related to long hours of working in twistedbent postures or with awkward trunk movements. It has already been established that providing relevant feedback helps individuals to maintain better body posture during the activities of daily living. With the goal of preventing LBP through objective monitoring of back posture, this paper proposes a wireless, comfortable, and compact textilebased wearable platform to track trunk movements when the user bends forward. The smart garment developed for this purpose was prototyped with an inductive sensor formed by sewing a copper wire into an elastic fabric in a zigzag pattern. The results of an extensive simulation study showed that this unique design increases the inductance value of the sensor, and, consequently, improves its resolution. Furthermore, experimental evaluation on a healthy participant confirmed that the proposed wearable system with the suggested sensor design can easily detect forward bending movements. The evaluation scenario was then extended to also include twisting and lateral bending of the trunk, and it was observed that the proposed design can successfully discriminate such movements from forward bending of the trunk. Results of the magnetic interference test showed that, most notably, moving a cellphone towards the unworn prototype affects sensor readings, however, manipulating a cellphone, when wearing the prototype, did not affect the capability of the sensor in detecting forward bends. The proposed platform is a promising step toward developing wearable systems to monitor back posture in order to prevent or treat LBP.