CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Actually posture is not a position, but it is a dynamic pattern of reflexes, habits and adaptive

responses to anything that resists us being more or less upright and functional such as:

 Gravity

 Awkward working conditions, which may be unavoidable

 Abnormal anatomy

 Athletic challenges

Correct posture keep the many intricate structures in the back and spine healthy, so correct posture

is very important. It is very simple, good posture and back support are critical to reducing the

incidence and levels of back pain and neck pain. Back support is more important for those people

who spend many hours sitting in an office chair or standing throughout the day.

Carey and Freburger notices that more than 80% of Americans experiences low back pain at some

time in their lives and that total costs of the condition are estimated at greater than $100 billion

annually.

This project ‘Human Posture Alert Jacket’ will help the people in correcting their posture to

minimize the back problems. In this Alert Jacket we are using sensors and a microcontroller, which

will monitor the human back during the day time while he/she is working. The programming is

done in C language and PCB designing is accomplished in cadsoft eagle.

1
1.2 Problem Statement

Poor posture and adequate back support can add strain to muscles and put stress on the spine. Poor

posture stress can change the anatomical characteristics of the spine leading to the possibility of

constricted blood vessels and nerves, as well as problems with muscles, discs and joints. All of

these are the major contributors to back and neck pain, as well as headaches, fatigue and concerns

with major organs and breathing.

A poor posture results in Sciatica problem. Sciatica are the symptoms of pain, numbness, and/or

weakness that radiate along the sciatic nerve from the lower back to the buttocks and legs. Most

commonly sciatica is caused by a disc problem [1].

1.3 Project Aim

The aim is to design a low cost human posture monitoring system that can be used by anyone

throughout the world. There are millions people who cannot afford the high prices, our aim is to

design a low cost back monitoring system, which can be used with the computer wirelessly [2].

1.4 Objective

 To design such a project that can monitor the human posture

 Low cost

 Can be easily modified

2
  Can be used by any age person

 Can be used to monitor the posture data wirelessly on the computer screen

1.5 Motivation

Now a day’s we really need this type of projects, because every engineering student is running

after quad copters, robotics and they are only making toys. Very few students work on biomedical

projects. This project which is based on human posture monitoring can bring a revolutionary

change and if advertised well can be used throughout the world. This idea can also be made

commercially [3].

1.6 Advantages

This project is designed to fix the human posture so it has many advantages like:

 Human Posture Fixing

 Eliminates the back pain

 Helps to monitor a person wirelessly

 Used with different age persons

 Used with jackets, t-shirts etc.

 This project offers low prices

1.7 Report Online

This report describes that how to design a Human Posture Alert Jacket. The report is organized by

section of the development process. The upcoming chapter are going to provide further detail about

the design of Human Posture Alert Jacket. Chapter 2 tells about the literature review. Chapter 3

gives a brief introduction and overview about action of this project. Chapter 4 tells about the basic

theory related to project and also introduces different components used in this project. Chapter 5

discusses the methodology of our project in detail. Chapter 6 basically tells about the description

3
of results achieved. Chapter 7 gives the conclusion and future suggestions that how we can enhance

this project to get better results and how one can make more efficient.

4
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The pain felt in the back is called the back pain. Back pain can be acute, sub-acute or chronic

depending on the duration. Pain can be characterized as a dull ache, shooting or piercing pain or a

burning sensation. The pain can radiate into the arms and hands as well as the legs or feet and may

include paresthesia (tingling with no apparent cause), weakness or numbness in the legs and arms.

The anatomic classification of back pain follows the segments of the spine, middle back pain, neck

pain, lower back pain with the lumbar vertebrae area most common for pain.

The pain can originate from the muscles, joints, nerves, bones or other structures in the spine.

Internal structures such as the gallbladder and pancreas are also the cause of back pain. Back pain

is common with about nine out of ten adults experiencing it at some point in their life, and five out

of ten working adults having it in every year. However it is rare for it to be permanently disabling,

and in most cases of herniated disks and stenosis, rest, injections or surgery have similar general

pain resolution outcomes on average after one year [4].

2.2 Related Works

Acute low back pain in the United States is the fifth most common reason for physician visits and

causes 40% of missed days off work. Back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide.

Over 86% of U.S workers sit for the entire workday and the average time spent daily on mobile

device is almost five hours. In total, America spend almost 11 hours a day on a screen according

to recent Nielsen report. That means hunched shoulders and curved forward leaning ‘text necks’.

5
This equates to a medley of potential health hazards including fatigue, muscle tension, hampered

immune functions, difficult breathing, chronic back pain, dowager humps, osteoporosis and even

depression [5].

2.3 Proposed Improvements in Existing Works

Poor posture and adequate back support can add strain to muscles and put stress on the spine.

Exercise can help to minimize the back pain but it’s not the permanent solution. A quick problem

solver can be such a system that can monitor the back all the day long, and alert the human on bad

posture so that he/she can adjust his back right at that time. In this way this problem can be solved

very soon. 80% of the population suffers from posture induced back pain. The NIH estimates that

54% of Americans who experience lower back pain spend the majority of their working sitting.

Theses frightening statistics have inspired a new cottage industry the posture fixers [6].

There are dozens of wearable devices that buzz a user upon slouching, complicated exercise

systems to lengthen the spine, ‘get up and move’ alarm apps, even clothing meant to strengthen

upper back muscles. For kids there are games, pillows and a head wearable that prevents ‘Gameboy

Disease’ by shutting down a connected iPad if a slouch is detected. There are

 DARMA Comfort Foam Seat Cushion Posture Coach And Activity Tracker

 Aligned Shirts and Bras

 Upright Pro By Upright Tech

 Active Posture Neck, Back And Total Body Exercise System By Core Prodigy

 Lumo Lift By Lumo Body Tech

6
 CHAPTER 3

THEORETICAL ASPECTS

3.1 Block Diagram

BACK
MONITORING
SENSOR
BATTERY

REGULATED
TRANSMITTER MICROCONTROLLER
POWER

DRIVER

BUZZER

CONTROLLER
RECEIVER BOARD

COMPUTER WITH
DESIGNED
APPLICATION

Fig 3.1: Block Diagram

7
3.2 Circuit Diagram

3.2.1 Transmitter Circuit

Fig 3.2: Transmitter Circuit

In the circuit diagram the flex sensor is connected with in series with a 10K resistor. 5V from

arduino is connected with flex sensor and a ground is connected with 10K resistor. This 10K

resistor and flex sensor makes a voltage divider. A wire from the middle is connected with analog

pin A0 of the arduino. The buzzer’s S pin is connected with pin number 5 of the arduino which is

the PWM pin and minus pin is connected with the ground. A 433MHz transmitter is connected

with the Arduino UNO. Transmitter’s 5V is connected with the arduino’s 5V and its ground is

connected with the arduino’s ground. While the data pin of the transmitter is connected with pin12

of the arduino. All the components are installed on a hard board.

8
3.2.2 Receiver Circuit

Fig 3.3: Receiver Circuit

This circuit diagram is of receiver side which is very simple and easy. The receiver side consists

of the Arduino UNO and a 433MHz receiver. The Arduino UNO board is connected with the

laptop through USB cable. Through serial communication the Arduino UNO and computer

application communicates with each other. The controller receives data wireless from the

transmitter circuit and then give it to the computer application where it is displayed on the graph.

9
 CHAPTER 4

HARDWARE COMPONENTS

4.1 Components List

Table 4.1: Components Used In This Project

Sr. No Components Name

1 Arduino UNO

2 Voltage Regulator LM7805

3 Back Monitoring Sensor

4 Resistors

5 Buzzer

6 Connecting Wires

7 Wireless Transmitter & Receiver

8 USB Cable

9 Battery 9V

10 Soldering Iron & Solder Wire

11 Jacket Or T-Shirt

12 Cutter

13 Glossy Paper

14 Sucker

15 Paste

10
4.2 Overview

This ‘Human Posture Alert Jacket’ project can be used for back monitoring. The sensor location

can be selected as per requirement. As physical appearance of each person is different, some people

have thin shoulders, while others have broad shoulders and so on. This project can easily be

calibrated and can be used with any time of T-shirt or jacket. This project has low cost so it can be

afforded by anyone. It is very beneficial. The flex sensor in this project is used to monitor the

amount of bend. For monitoring the rounded shoulders flex sensors is the best choice [7].

This Project consist of two main parts

 Transmitter End

 Receiver End

4.3 Arduino UNO

Arduino is 8-bit Microcontroller. 8 bit microcontroller means central processing unit or arithmetic

logic unit can process 8 bit data at a time. It has built in memory (SRAM, Flash Memory) with

input and output peripherals. All necessary protocols of control are available like SPI, I2C etc.

Arduino Uno series uses AVR Microcontroller that is AT-Mega 328. It has 14 pins out of which

6 are PWM pins and other are digital pins. It has just 6 analog pins. Different pins can be used for

different purpose. This board has built in USB to TTL converter. We can supply safely up to 12v

in its input [8].

11
 Table 4.2: Technical Species

Microcontroller ATMEGA 328

Operating Voltage 5V

Digital Pins 14

PWM Pins 6

Analog Pins 6

DC Current Per Input And Output Pin 20mA

DC Current For 3.3V 50mA

Flash Memory 32KB

Clock Speed 16MHz

Weight 25g

SRAM 2KB

ERAM 1KB

Fig 4.1: Arduino UNO

12
The power pins of Arduino are as follows:

 VIN

The input voltage to the arduino board when using an external source. It is possible to supply

the voltage through this pin.

 5V

In Arduino UNO voltage regulators are used to supply regulated voltage to atmega328

microcontroller. There are two regulators 5V and 3.3V. The Arduino UNO can be powered up

using a 12V adaptor.

 GND

Pin of earth.

 LED

LED in arduino is connected with pin number 13. This LED can be turned ON/OFF by using

the HIGH and LOW commands. The LED remains ON when HIGH and remains OFF when

LOW.

 3V3

3.3 volt power supply is generated by the on board regulator and the maximum current is

50mA.

 Arduino UNO

It has a default serial port on pin0 and pin1. These pins are used for the serial communication,

debugging purposes to check any error in coding and can also be used to communicate with

other devices which make use of serial communication like GSM module, Bluetooth module

and so on. There are thousands of devices which uses serial communication.

13
  External Interrupts

Pins 2 and 3 can be configured to trigger an interrupt on a low value, a rising or falling edge

or a change in value.

 Arduino UNO PWM Pins

PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) pins are 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11. On these pins the analog write

function is used to set the duty cycle of a PWM pulse train.

4.4 Voltage Regulator LM7805

4.4.1 Description

The LM7805 series of three terminal positive regulators is available in T0/220/D-PAK package

and with different fixed output voltages making them useful in a wide range of applications. The

output voltage from the condenser is filtered more and finally regulated. The voltage regulator

keeps the output voltage constant regardless of the change in the supply variation, load variation

and temperature variations. IC LM7805 is a +5V regulator used for the microcontroller.

Fig 4.2: Voltage Regulator LM7805

14
Each voltage regulator uses thermal shutdown, internal current limitation and safe protection of

the operating area making it essentially indestructible. If adequate heat dispersion is provided,

voltage regulators can supply more than 1A of output current. Voltage Regulators can be used to

obtain adjustable voltages and currents.

4.4.2 Electrical Features

 At constant junction temperature the load and the regulation of the line are specified.

 The variation of V0 due to the effects of heating must be taken into consideration

separately.

 Pulse test with low duty cycle is used.

4.4.3 Internal Block Diagram

Fig 4.3: Internal Block diagram Of IC LM7805 (Voltage Regulator)

15
4.4.4 Features

 Thermal Overload Protection

 Output Current Up to 1A

 Available in Different Output Voltages of 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 24Volts

 Output Transistor Safe Operating Area protection

 Short Circuit Protection

4.5 Flex Sensor

A flex sensor also called bend sensor, measures the amount of deflection or bending. Usually the

sensor is stuck to the surface and resistance of sensor element is varied by bending the surface.

Since the resistance is directly proportional to the amount of bend, it is used as goniometer (an

instrument for the precise measurement of angles). The flex sensor is also called flexible

potentiometer. This flex sensor has two contacts. It can be easily used with a breadboard and

soldering jumper wires with the flex sensor can be easily interfaced with other circuits. It works

like an ordinary potentiometer or variable resistor, the only difference is that the flex sensor

resistance changes with the bending while the resistance of an ordinary variable resistor changes

when we rotate the nob.

Fig 4.4: Flex sensor

16
There are some other types of the flex sensor but the most commonly sensor seen on the screen is

a conductive ink based flex sensor.

4.5.1 Features

 Angle displacement measurement.

 Bends and flexes physically with motion device.

 Simple construction.

 Low profile.

4.5.2 Uses

 Robotics

 Gaming (Virtual Motion)

 Medical Devices

 Computer Peripherals

 Musical Instruments

 Physical Therapy

4.5.3 Mechanical Specifications

Table 4.3: Mechanical Specifications

Life Cycle Greater than 1 million

Height 0.43mm (0.017")

Temperature -35oC to +80oC

17
4.5.4 Electrical Specifications

Table 4.4: Electrical Specifications

Flat Resistance 10K Ohm ±30%

Bend Resistance Minimum 2 times Greater than the flat

resistance at 180o pinch bend

Power Rating 1 Watt

How It Works

4.6 Resistor

Resistors are the electronic components that have a specific electrical resistance and are constantly

evolving. Resistors limits the flow of electrons through a circuit.

Fig 4.5: Resistor

18
They are the passive components, in the sense that they consume only energy and can’t generate

it. Resistors are generally added to circuits in which they integrate active components such as

microcontroller, operational amplifiers and other integrated circuits. Resistors are used to limit the

current, to divide the voltages and pull up the input/output lines. Resistors can be manufactured in

various ways. The most common type of resistor is the carbon composition resistor. Fine

granulated coal is mixed with clay and hardened. The resistance depends on the percentage of

carbon in clay, the higher this relationship, the lower the resistance [9].

4.6.1 Pull-up Resistor

In digital circuits, the pull-up resistor is a normal resistance connected to the high voltage power

supply (+5V or +12V) and sets the Input/output level of a device to 1. The pull-up resistor sets the

level to 1 when the input/output is disconnected. When the input/output is connected the level is

determined by the device and replaces the pull-up resistor.

4.6.2 Pull-down Resistor

In digital circuits, the pull-down resistor is a normal resistance connected to ground and sets the

input/output level of a device to 0. The pull-down resistor sets the level to 0 when the input/output

is disconnected. When the input/output is connected, the level is determined by the device and

over writes the pull-down resistor.

4.7 Jumper Wires

Basically jumper wire is an electrical wire and is used to interconnect the components of a

breadboard or any other test circuit without soldering. Jumper wires are of 20cm long with male

connectors on one end and female on the other. Use these to jumper from any male or female

header on any board. There are 3 types of jumper wires, male to male, male to female and female

to female. Female ends do not have pins and are used to plug things into, whereas male ends have

19
pins and can plug into things. The most common and the most widely used jumper wires are male

to male jumper wires. A male to male wire is used while connecting two ports on a breadboard.

Fig 4.6: Jumper Wires

4.8 Vero Board

Vero board is a branch of strip board, a pre-formed circuit board material of copper strips on an

insulating bonded paper board. It is a double-side prototype board, all holes are smooth and clear

and it’s both sides are identical.

Table 4.5: Technical Features

1 Grid 0.1" (2.54mm)

2 Thickness 1.6mm

3 Hole Diameter 0.9mm

4 Material FR-4 (Glass Fiber)

5 Dimensions 50x70mm

20
 Fig 4.7: Vero Board

4.9 Buzzer

The buzzer is a cheap 5V device and can easily be controlled using the Arduino UNO PWM pin.

It has three pins but only two are used. –Pin is connected with ground and the S pin is connected

with the desired PWM pin and by using the analog write function this buzzer can be controlled. A

driver circuit is designed for connection of the buzzer with the digital pin.

Fig 4.8: Buzzer

21
4.10 Transmitter

Flex sensors are used for sensing position of backbone this sensor operate at 5V and give analog

values to microcontroller where we apply different condition to get real data which is used further

for processing. Microcontroller is backbone of this project which control all components working

in transmitter side if a person in bad order then sensor sense it and give value to controller for

further processing. After processing of data this data is send to application through wireless

module. The wireless module operate at 434MHz. FS1000A wireless module is used as transmitter

end.

Fig 4.9: Transmitter FS1000A

A transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with the help of antenna. A

transmitter generates a radio frequency current applied to the antenna, which in turn radiate radio

waves. A transmitter generates radio waves for communication, radar and navigational purposes.

A transmitter can either be a separate piece of an integrated circuit or an electronic equipment

within another electronic device. Most transmitters are used for radio communication of

information over a certain distance. The information that is provided to the transmitter is in the

form of an electronic signal. This includes video from a TV camera, audio from a microphone and

22
a digital signal for wireless networking devices. The transmitter combines the information signal

that is to be carried with the RF signal which generates the radio waves. This is called the

modulation. In an FM transmitter the information is added to the radio signal by slightly varying

the radio signals frequency. In an AM transmitter, it is added by varying its amplitude. Several

other types of modulation are also used. ICs allow high performance circuits to be built at lesser

costs with significant amounts of space saving. A transmitter is a telemetry device which converts

from a sensor into a signal and sends it usually via wires to be received by some display located at

a distance away. When transmitter and receiver are combined in one unit they are called

transceiver. The term transmitter is often abbreviated ‘XMTR’ or ‘TX’ in the technical documents.

Usually a radio consists of several elements that work together to generate radio waves that contain

useful information such as video, audio and digital data [10].

 Power Supply: Provides the necessary electrical power to operate the transmitter.

 Oscillator: Creates alternating current at the frequency on which the transmitter will

transmit. The oscillator usually generates a sine wave which is called carrier wave.

 Modulator: It adds useful information to the carrier wave. There are two ways to add this

information. The first called amplitude modulation which makes slightly increase or

decrease to the intensity of the carrier wave. The second called frequency modulation

makes slightly increase or decrease the frequency of the carrier wave.

 Amplifier: Amplifier amplifies the modulated carrier wave to increase its power. The

more powerful the amplifier, the more powerful the broadcast.

 Antenna: It converts the amplified signal to radio waves.

23
4.10.1 Transmitter Module Pin Description

Table 4.6: Transmitter Module Pin Description

Pin Number Function Name

1 Antenna ANT

2 Serial Data Input Pin Output

3 Ground (0V) Ground

4 Supply Voltage (3V-12V) Vcc

Wireless transmitter modules allows arduino to wirelessly communicate with other arduino’s or

radio frequency controlled devices that operate in the same frequency i.e. 433MHz. Both

transmitter and receiver work in pairs to communicate with each other.

4.10.2 Working

A transmitter is an electronic circuit which transforms electric power from a battery or electrical

mains into a radio frequency alternating current, which reverses directions millions to billions of

times per second. The energy in such a rapidly reversing current can radiate off a conductor as

electromagnetic waves. The transmitter also impresses information such as an audio or video

signal onto the radio frequency current to be carried by the radio waves. When they strike the

antenna of a radio receiver, the waves excite similar radio frequency currents in it. The radio

receiver extracts the information from the received waves. A practical radio transmitter usually

consists of these parts:

 A power supply circuit to transform the input electrical power to the higher voltages needed

to produce the required power output.

24
 An electronic oscillator circuit to generate the radio frequency signal. This usually

generates a sine wave of constant amplitude often called the carrier wave, because it serves

to carry the information through space. In most modern transmitters this is a crystal

oscillator in which the frequency is precisely controlled by the vibrations of a quartz

crystal.

 A modulator circuit to add the information to be transmitted to the carrier wave produced

by the oscillator. This is done by varying some aspect of the carrier wave. The information

is provided to the transmitter either in the form of an audio signal., which represents a video

signal, audio signal or data in the form of a binary digital signal

 In an AM transmitter the amplitude of the carrier wave is varied in proportion to the

modulation signal.

 In an FM transmitter the frequency of the carrier wave is varied by the modulating signal.

 In an FSK transmitter which transmits digital data, the frequency of the carrier wave is

shifted between two frequencies which represents the tow binary digits 0 and 1. Many other

types of modulation are also used. In large transmitters the oscillator and modulator

together are often referred to as the exciter.

 An RF amplifier to increase the power of the signal, to increase the range of the radio

waves.

 An impedance matching circuit to match the impedance of the transmitter to the impedance

of the antenna to transfer power efficiently to the antenna. If these impedances are not

equal, it causes a condition called standing waves, in which the power is reflected back

from the antenna toward the transmitter wasting power and sometimes overheating the

transmitter.

25
4.10.3 Applications

Transmitters are used in broadcasting applications such as in TV transmitter or in a radio

transmitter. Transmitters can also be found in electronic devices that communicates by radio

including wireless computer networks, garage door openers, cell phones, Bluetooth devices,

aircraft, and two way radios in ships, spacecraft, navigational beacons and radar sets. The antenna

can be enclosed inside the case or attached to the outside of the transmitter as in portable devices

including cell phones, auto keyless remotes and walkie-talkies. For more powerful transmitters,

the antenna may be located on top of a building and connected to the transmitter by a transmission

line.

4.11 Receiver

A receiver is the opposite of a transmitter. Receiver uses an antenna to capture the radio waves,

processes those waves to extract those waves that are vibrating at the desired frequency, extracts

the audio signals that were added to those waves, amplifies the audio signals, and finally plays

them on a speaker.

 Antenna: Antenna captures the radio waves. Typically the antenna is simply a length of

wire. When this wire is exposed to radio waves, the waves induce a very small alternating

current in the antenna.

 RF Amplifier: It is a sensitive amplifier that amplifies the very weak radio frequency

signal from the antenna so that the signal can be processed by the tuner.

 Tuner: A circuit that can extract signals of a particular frequency from a mix of signals of

different frequencies. On its own, the antenna captures radio waves of all frequencies and

sends them to the RF amplifier which dutifully amplifies them all.

26
 The tuner usually employs the combination of an inductor and a capacitor to form a circuit

that resonates at a particular frequency. This frequency is called the resonant frequency and

is determined by the values chosen for the coil and the capacitor. These type of circuits

tends to block any AC signals at a frequency above or below the resonant frequency.

Resonant frequency can be adjusted by varying the amount of inductance in the coil or the

capacitance of the capacitor. In simple radio receiver’s circuits, the tuning is adjusted by

varying the number of turns of wire in the coil. More sophisticated tuners use a variable

capacitor to vary the frequency.

 Detector: Detector is responsible for separating the audio information from the carrier

wave. For AM signals, this can be done with a diode that just rectifies the alternating

current signal. Form FM signals, the detector is a little more complicated.

4.11.1 Receiver Module Pin Description

Table 4.7: Receiver Module Pin Description

Pin Number Function Name

1 Ground(0V) Ground

2-3 Serial Data Output Pin Input

4 Supply Voltage (3.3V-6V) Vcc

5 Antenna ANT

4.12 RF Module

An RF (Radio Frequency) module is a small electronic circuit used to transmit/receive radio

signals on one of a number of carrier frequencies. RF modules are widely used in electronic design

owing to the difficulty of designing radio circuitry. RF modules are used in medium and low

27
volume products for consumer applications such as wireless alarm systems, garage door openers,

smart sensor applications, industrial remote controls and wireless home automation systems.

The operating frequency of radio frequency module can be varied easily. But we offer two kinds

of, one of them is 433MHz and another is 315MHz. The transmission occurs at the rate of 600bps-

100Kbps. The transmitted data is received by radio frequency receiver operating at the same

frequency as that of the transmitter.

4.12.1 RF Module Specifications

Table 4.8: RF Module Specifications

Frequency 433MHz

Modulation ASK

Receiver Data Output High-1/2 VCC, Low-0,7V

Transmitter Input Voltage 3-12V (High Voltage = More Transmitter

Power)

Receiver Input Voltage 3.3-6V (High Voltage = More Receiver

Power)

28
 CHAPTER 5

METHODOLOGY

5.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses about the working and steps which are being taken to make the project. This

project is divided into two steps one is hardware and the other is the software implementation. In

hardware implementation we do a physical connectivity of different electrical and electronic

component that they work together. In software implementation we use Arduino IDE and cadsoft

eagle software. Arduino IDE is used for programming and Cadsoft eagle for schematics [11].

5.2 Overview

This ‘Human Posture Alert Jacket’ project can be used for back monitoring. The sensor location

can be selected as per requirement. As physical appearance of each person is different, some people

have thin shoulders, while others have broad shoulders and so on. This project can easily be

calibrated and can be used with any time of T-shirt or jacket. This project has low cost so it can be

afforded by anyone. It is very beneficial. The flex sensor in this project is used to monitor the

amount of bend. For monitoring the rounded shoulders flex sensors is the best choice [12].

5.3 Methodology

Poor posture and adequate back support can add strain to muscles and put stress on the spine. To

avoid this and to improve the poor posture we introduced a system which will monitor the back all

the day long and can alert within seconds so that the person can adjust his posture otherwise the

beep will keeping buzzing. For this system a t-shirt or a jacket can be designed or we can use a

readymade one. This t-shirt or jacket will be having sensors (the numbers of sensors can be

increased or decreased), a microcontroller and a battery [13].

29
5.4 Software Features

Arduino IDE and Cadsoft eagle software is used in this project. Arduino IDE is used for

programming and Cadsoft eagle for schematics.

5.4.1 Arduino IDE

Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a cross platform application that is written

in the programming language java. Arduino IDE is used to write and upload programs to the

arduino board. The languages that supports the arduino IDE are C and C++ using special rules of

code structuring.

5.4.2 CadSoft Eagle

Eagle stands for Easy Applicable Graphical Layout Editor. It is a scriptable electronic design

automation (EDA) application with schematic capture, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, auto

router and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) features.

30
 CHAPTER 6

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

6.1 Simulation Results

Quality assurance is very important for any product to perform satisfactorily and reliably after

deployment. In order to achieve these goals, each module of the system is tested individually. The

whole system is tested to see whether the goals are accomplished or not. This chapter consists of

evaluation of the process and the outcome of various tests designed specifically to ensure reliability

of the system.

6.1.1 Simulation Result 1

Human Posture Monitoring is especially designed for monitoring the good or poor posture. If

posture is not fixed it leads to so many types of back problems. So we have designed the project

in which the microcontroller send the posture data to the computer, where the status of good or

poor posture will be displayed [14]. This simulation display the status of good posture.

Fig 6.1: Simulation Result 1

31
6.1.2 Simulation Result 2

Human Posture Monitoring is especially designed for monitoring the good or bad posture. If

posture is not fixed it leads to so many types of back problems. So we have designed the project

in which the microcontroller send the posture data to the computer, where the status of good or

poor posture will be displayed. Besides this it will also give a sound alert to the person wearing

this jacket or t-shirt which consists of the sensor. This simulation display the status of poor posture.

Fig 6.2: Simulation Result 2

6.1.3 Simulation Result 3

Human Posture Monitoring is especially designed for monitoring the good or bad posture. If

posture is not fixed it leads to so many types of back problems. So we have designed the project

in which the microcontroller send the posture data to the computer, where the status of good or

32
poor posture will be displayed. Besides this it will also give a sound alert to the person wearing

this jacket or t-shirt which consists of the sensor. In this simulation the transmitter sends the data

of good posture to the receiver and the status of good posture displays on the computer screen.

Fig 6.3: Simulation Result 3

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 CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATION

7.1 Conclusion

Human Posture Monitoring is especially designed for monitoring the good or poor posture. If the

posture is not fixed it leads to so many types of back problems, one of the major problem is the

Sciatica. Sciatica are the symptoms of pain, numbness, and/or weakness that radiate along the

sciatic nerve from the lower back to the buttocks and legs. More than 80% of the people suffer

from back problems, which is due to the result of good or poor posture. So that’s why we have

designed a project which will monitor the human posture. This system will monitor the back all

the day long and can alert within seconds so that the person can adjust his posture otherwise the

beep will keeping buzzing. For this system a t-shirt or a jacket can be designed or we can use a

readymade one. This t-shirt or jacket will be having sensors (the numbers of sensors can be

increased or decreased), a microcontroller and a battery. It has low cost, can be easily modified,

can be used by any age person. It eliminates the back pain and the posture data can be seen

wirelessly on the screen [15].

7.2 Future Recommendation

The future scope of this project is defined by its design and working. It’s an innovative idea for

monitoring the good or poor posture. The sensors will monitor the back all the day long and can

alert within seconds so that the person can adjust his posture otherwise the beep will keeping

buzzing. This project can also be used to monitor the angle in a general way. This idea can be

implemented in future as it reduces the ratio of back problems.

34
 REFERENCES
[1] P.D.. Adamczyk and B.P. Bailey, “A Method and System for Intelligent Interruption

Management,” in proc. 4th International Workshop on TAsk MOdels and DIAgrams for user

interface design For Work and Beyond, Gdansk, Poland.

[2] A. Adamek, N.E. O’Connor, and G. Jones, “An Integrated Approach for Object Shape

Registration and Modeling,” in 2005 Intl. Workshop on Multimedia Information Retrieval in

conjunction with SIGIR 2005, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005.

[3] “Attentive User Interfaces,” special issue, Communications of the ACM, (J. Vertegaal, ed.),

Vol. 46, No. 3, March 2003.

[4] O. Basir, D. Bullock, and E. Breza, “Visual classification and posture estimation of multiple

vehicle occupants,” US Patent #20040220705, Nov. 4, 2004.

[5] B. Boulay, F. Bremond, and M. Thonnat, “Human Posture Recognition in Video Sequence,”

in pro. Joint IEEE International Workshop on VS-PETS, pp.23-29, Nice, France，Oct. 11-12，

2003

[6] M.-S. Chuang, and M.-S. Huang, “System and method for detecting unhealthy operation

posture of using keyboard,” US Patent #20030151595, Feb. 7, 2002.

[7] R. Cucchiara, C. Grana, A. Prati, and R. Vezzani, “Probabilistic Posture Classification for

Human-Behavior Analysis,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 35, No.1,

January 2005.

[8] R. Donkin, "Typing Injury FAQ: Software Monitoring Tools,"

(http://www.faqs.org/faqs/typing-injury-faq/software), 1995, accessed Aug. 20. 2005.

35
[9] A. Elgammal, V. Shet, Y. Yacoob, L. S. Davis, “Gesture Recognition using a Probabilistic

Framework for Pose Matching,” The Seventh International Conference on Control, Automation,

Robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2002, Singapore

in December 2-5, 2002.

[10] A. Hedge, “Effects of Ergonomic Management Software on Employee Performance,” Cornell

Human Factors Laboratory Technical Report #/RP9991, 1991.

[11] H. Ikeda, M. Maeda, N. Kato, and H. Kashimura, “Classification of Human Actions Using

Face and Hands Detection,” in proc. ACM Multimedia 2004, New York City, Oct. 2004.

[12] S. Illic, M. Salzmann, and P. Fua, “Implicit Surfaces Make for Better Silhouettes,” Computer

Vision and Pattern Recognition, (1) 2005: 1135-1141. San Diego, CA, June 2005.

[13] A. Jaimes, J. Liu, and N. Sebe, "Affective Meeting Video Analysis," in proc. IEEE ICME

2005, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 2005.

[14] M. Kölsch, A. C. B., and M. Turk, “Postural Comfort Zone for Reaching Gestures,” in HFES

Annual Meeting Notes, October 2003.

[15] H. Nomura and T. Shima, “Image feature extraction apparatus, method of extracting image

characteristic, monitoring and inspection system, exposure system, and

interface system,” US Patent #20020015526, Feb. 7, 2002.

36
 APPENDIX

Transmitter Code

#include <VirtualWire.h>

const int transmit_pin = 12;

int flexs = A0; // flex sensor is connected with pin A0 of the arduino

int flexdata = 0;

int buzzer = 5;

String str;

char cstr[27];

void setup()

// Initialise the IO and ISR

vw_set_tx_pin(transmit_pin);

vw_setup(2000); // Bits per sec

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(flexs, INPUT);

pinMode(buzzer, OUTPUT);

void loop()

flexdata = analogRead(flexs);

Serial.print("flex value;");

Serial.print(flexdata);

37
Serial.println("");

if( flexdata < 220)

analogWrite(buzzer, 150);

if( flexdata > 220)

analogWrite(buzzer, 0);

str = String(flexdata);

str.toCharArray(cstr,27);

vw_send((uint8_t *)cstr, 5); // change this number according to the sensor values

vw_wait_tx(); // Wait until the whole message is gone

delay(1000);

Receiver Code

#include <VirtualWire.h>

const int receive_pin = 11;

String message;

int rawvalue = 255;

void setup()

delay(1000);

38
Serial.begin(9600); // Debugging only

Serial.println("setup");

// Initialise the IO and ISR

vw_set_rx_pin(receive_pin);

vw_set_ptt_inverted(true); // Required for DR3100

vw_setup(2000); // Bits per sec

vw_rx_start(); // Start the receiver PLL running

void loop()

uint8_t buf[VW_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN];

uint8_t buflen = VW_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN;

if (vw_get_message(buf, &buflen)) // Non-blocking

int i;

// Message with a good checksum received, dump it.

//Serial.print("Got: ");

for (i = 0; i < buflen; i++)

char c = (buf[i]);

message = message + c ;

// Serial.print(message);

// message = "";

39
 // Serial.print(' ');

Serial.println(message);

message = "";

delay(2000);

Application Interface

Fig 5.4: Application Interface

Code:

Imports System.IO

Imports System.IO.Ports

Public Class Form1

Dim value1 As Decimal

40
 Dim value2 As Decimal

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles MyBase.Load

SerialPort1.Close()

SerialPort1.PortName = "com7"

SerialPort1.BaudRate = "9600"

SerialPort1.DataBits = 8

SerialPort1.Parity = Parity.None

SerialPort1.StopBits = StopBits.One

SerialPort1.Handshake = Handshake.None

SerialPort1.Encoding = System.Text.Encoding.Default

SerialPort1.Open()

End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Timer1.Tick

Dim s As String

s = TextBox1.Text + "," + "," + "," + ","

Dim somestring() As String

' Split string based on comma

somestring = s.Split(New Char() {","c})

TextBox2.Text = somestring(0)

Try

value1 = Convert.ToDecimal(TextBox2.Text)

41
 Catch ex As Exception

TextBox1.Text = ""

End Try

TextBox3.Text = somestring(1)

Try

value2 = Convert.ToDecimal(TextBox3.Text)

Catch ex As Exception

TextBox1.Text = ""

End Try

TextBox4.Text = somestring(2)

Chart1.Series("Raw").Points.AddY(value2)

Chart1.Series("Data").Points.AddY(value1)

TextBox1.Text = ""

End Sub

Private Sub DataReceived(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As SerialDataReceivedEventArgs)

Handles SerialPort1.DataReceived

Try

Dim mydata As String = ""

mydata = SerialPort1.ReadExisting()

If TextBox1.InvokeRequired Then

TextBox1.Invoke(DirectCast(Sub() TextBox1.Text &= mydata, MethodInvoker))

Else

TextBox1.Text &= mydata

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 End If

Catch ex As Exception

MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)

End Try

End Sub

End Class

43