Posture sensing using a low-cost temperature sensor array

Posture identification is an example of one of many physiological characteristics that can be used to determine a variety of health parameters. Pressure mats and camera analysis are common methodologies to determine posture of a subject in a chair. In this paper, we show results of a laboratory study of how we can determine posture of a subject using various arrays of multiple low-cost temperature sensors per section or characteristic to be determined. This can be a standalone occupancy and posture system, or can be fused with data from other technologies to validate data from pressure or visual-based systems. The system was tested with different types of furniture such as various styles of chairs, armrests, cushions, and beds.