Daylong sitting posture measurement with a new wearable system for at home body movement monitoring

The ability to monitor seated posture at home is of significant importance; in fact, incorrect posture for a long time can lead to musculoskeletal disorders. This document describes a comparative analysis of a new wearable system for non-invasive daylong monitoring of seated postures in real life situations. The system is capable of measuring the subject's posture through an instrumented T-shirt that uses an inductive sensor sewn directly onto the fabric, making the system non-invasive for the user. This paper gives brief description of the wearable system and the method used for the measurement of Range of Motion (ROM) during seated activities. The experimental results are reported and compared with results obtained through an optical system, which measures the position of the markers on the back of the analyzed subjects. The results support the concurrent validity of the wearable system respect to the optical system, usually adopted for movement and posture measurement in the literature. Furthermore, the new wearable system was used for a monitoring activity of some hours at home aiming to test the wearable system in a real home contest.