Impact of Heavy Load Backpack in Thoracic Spine for Posture Monitoring Using Wearable Inertial Sensor on Elementary Students

Protecting the back of children is one of the most important things to do for their health every day. Children often carry heavy backpacks when in school and must maintain good posture to avoid the risk of spine injuries. This enabled the researchers to propose and develop a wearable device that monitors the posture of children, more specifically in the thoracic spine area. The researchers designed a wearable device that detects when the user is slouching and a monitoring system that effectively guides a child to keep their posture in check constantly. It is a lightweight vest that is adjustable. Therefore, children from 7 to 12 years old would experience a more comfortable fit. This study highlights the significance of the wearable technology that showcases the design and the process that uses a flex sensor and a gyroscope sensor to measure the back posture of a child and notify them through the alarm from the system once they are in a slouching position. The prototype detected how their posture responds to a backpack being loaded. It results in a more slouching position as the load of the backpack increases and maintains the habit of slouching even without carrying a backpack.