Mission Objective
Create an auditory feedback system to stabilise and enhance sitting posture.
Overview
Sedentary lifestyles are increasingly widespread, and sitting time has become normalised – often to a low percentage of other forms of activity. This commonly leads to neglect, and distraction from body awareness, as well as postural tendencies that form from looking at screens and using devices (such as a mouse and keyboard).
The brain’s reward systems can be activated by sound, this is well known in phone sounds (earcons and auditory icons) and haptics, so users are attracted to messages, and updates. There are also similar sounds used to alert users to issues – such as error sounds, and alarms.
On this basis it is possible to create a system that can warn and / or reward posture behaviours – such as achieving a desired height, or – in this case – spinal alignment. This system works a bit like alarm systems in parking a car, you’re fine when you hear nothing, but when ou hear sound action is required. A challenge here is that each dimension needs to be distinct from the other, so this is where the variability in sounds (sine waves, rhythmic beats, noise) are needed – to develop some method of learning, associated to each movement action.
Collaborators
Andrzej Mitas
Physiotherapists: Andrzej Mysliwic, Damien Kania.
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