title: Wearable monitoring of seated spinal posture.
abstract: This work describes the evaluation of a wearable plastic optical fiber (POF) sensor for monitoring seated spinal posture, as compared to a conventional expert visual analysis, and the development of a field-deployable posture monitoring system. A garment-integrated POF sensor was developed and tested on nine healthy subjects. Data from the wearable sensor were compared to data taken simultaneously from a marker-based motion capture system, for accuracy and reliability. Peak analysis of the resulting data showed a mean time error of 0.53 plusmn 0.8 s, and a mean value error of 0.64 plusmn 3.1 deg, which represents 14.5% of the average range of motion. Expert determination of transitional (good to bad) posture showed a variation of 20.9% of range of motion. These results indicate that the wearable sensor approximates the accuracy of expert visual analysis, and provides sufficient accuracy of measurement to reliably monitor seated spinal posture.
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Dunne
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hermann
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Smyth
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Caulfield