Human Posture Monitoring using Flex Sensor

Abstract

In healthcare network breach of privacy issues may arise from the implementation of vision cameras for continuous patient monitoring. To overcome this, a method for tracking the position of patients is proposed using a tiny sensor placed on a patient clothing. A flexible sensor based on polyvinylidene fluoride with flexible piezoelectric material is used. The flexible sensors are placed onto clothing of the patient that is close to the backbone of the patient. The electrical signals from the spinal cord are measured using the piezoelectric sensors during the bending or twisting of spine to the sides. This can be continuously monitored by transferring the captured data to the system through Bluetooth. A customized program is developed to detect the patient’s position through an algorithm, and the sensor results. From the experimental results it was noted that it is very essential to maintain the right posture. Not only the position determines posture. It is an adaptive response to everything that prevents you from being more or less upright and functional. It is a continual sequence of impulses, behaviors, and proprioception. Poor posture can result in injury to the spine leading to the consumption of heavy doses of pain killers which in turn may cause a bad impact on the functioning of the kidney. This study aims at measuring the deformation angle of the spine and the angle at which it has wrongly inclined and giving an alarm to the patient to set his/her posture right.