Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
Many people spend a large part of their everyday working life sitting down. The possible consequences are back pain, stiff neck or muscles due to the one-sided stress on the spine and muscles.
But how exactly do we sit and how should seating furniture be designed so that we can sit better and "healthier"?
Information such as the sitting position and movements of the seated person are acquired by the capacitive motion sensors integrated into the seating surface and backrest. Similar to a smartphone touchscreen, 72 sensors register every movement in real time. Textile-integrated, capacitive motion sensing combines inconspicuous sensor technology for capturing body movements with robust algorithms for mapping and interpreting movement behavior while sitting.
This capacitive motion sensor technology is integrated into the “Smart Chair” technology demonstrator created by Fraunhofer IIS.
“Smart Chair” users can choose between two operating modes
- In analysis mode, the Smart Chair saves the captured data and calculates activity parameters offline to quantify the movements of the seated person.
- In real-time mode, the system is used as a standardized input device to control the computer mousend can thus be used as a human-machine interface.
In both operating modes, the data is sent via Bluetooth to a computer, on which the weight distribution of the seated person can additionally be visualized by means of false color imaging.
