Analyzing Spinal Shape Changes During Posture Training Using a Wearable Device

Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent diseases in Western societies. A large percentage of European and American populations suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. One successful approach to address lower back pain is postural training, which can be supported by wearable devices,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Katharina Stollenwerk, Jonas Müller, André Hinkenjann, Björn Krüger
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/16/3625
Description
Summary:Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent diseases in Western societies. A large percentage of European and American populations suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. One successful approach to address lower back pain is postural training, which can be supported by wearable devices, providing real-time feedback about the user&#8217;s posture. In this work, we analyze the changes in posture induced by postural training. To this end, we compare snapshots before and after training, as measured by the Gokhale <i>SpineTracker</i>&#8482;. Considering pairs of before and after snapshots in different positions (standing, sitting, and bending), we introduce a feature space, that allows for unsupervised clustering. We show that resulting clusters represent certain groups of postural changes, which are meaningful to professional posture trainers.
ISSN:1424-8220