Students at the Jalandhar-headquartered Lovely Professional University (LPU) have perfected a device to help correct bad posture while sitting. How many of us routinely slouch or slump at desk or in the sofa! Yet over time this can lead to body-ache and chronic cervical disorders.
Sitaby is a bionic and Internet of Things-based tool—it looks like a towel that you can drape on your chair before sitting—that uses multiple sensors to monitor the posture of the person seated. It is a high tech version of teacher telling the class to 'sit up straight'!
The Posture Proctor as its makers call it, sends real time alerts via vibrations and audio alerts —as well as mobile phone notifications-- with warnings to alter the posture. If you are seated too long, it will suggest you take a break. The data is also captured in real time and transmitted to the data cloud for and future references by clinicians for diagnosis and treatment planning if required.
Doctors suggest that a person having 23 hours sitting and desk-bound activity per week has 46% more risk for developing heart- disease.
The product was the joint work of students of computer sciences, applications, information technology, bio-sciences, electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering departments Gupta at LPU guided by Dr Lovi Raj. It has won the Infosys Foundation's 2016 Infymaker Award.
The inventors are looking to crowdsource funding to productionize their device.