Bad back? Of course you do, because you spend the day slouched in front of a computer monitor, and then you slouch over the machines at your gym whilst listening to the excellent CultCast on your iPhone, before heading home to a slouched dinner in front of the TV.
In fact, you’re so indifferent to your posture and the health of your back that you probably don’t deserve to know about the LumoBack Smart Posture Sensor, but I’ll tell you anyway. You’re welcome.
The LumoBack is a small sensor on a belt that you strap around your lumbar region, and when you flop into a bad position it administers a short, sharp buzz to remind you to sit up. But of course there’s a lot more to it than that.
LumoBack is a Kickstarter project by a team of Stanford brainiacs and is based on work by Andrew Chang, who had terrible back trouble due to bad posture. It consists of the small and comfy-looking belt which houses sensors and a low-power Bluetooth radio (battery life: four days).
The belt tracks your movement and can tell if you are sitting, standing, walking, running or even which side you’re laying on while sleeping. And of course it can tell whether you are slouching and buzz you to let you know.
But there’s also a companion iPhone app which can show on-screen your current posture, and can take all the data collected by the belt and put it onto nice graphs and charts, as well as tracking your exercise and sleep patterns.
To get one, you’ll need to pledge at least $115 to the Kickstarter project, and wait until November at the earliest to get one.
I could probably do with one of these: I’m writing this post sat on my bed, propped up with pillows and with my iPad on an Origami workstation, balanced on a stretched canvas on my lap. My posture probably couldn’t be any worse.
Thanks: Andrew!
