Design Concept of Clothing Recognizing Back Postures

Continuous observation of the back enables an online feedback concerning malpositions or unhealthy movements. In this paper a design concept of clothing measuring back postures is presented. The posture detection is based on elongation measurements captured by strain sensitive fibres attached to the undershirt. The feasibility of this approach is shown by reference measurements, which provide a basis to define requirements for textile strain sensors. With these reference measurements, elongations in the range of 20% were measured on the back. The paper is completed by an overview of the state-of-the-art of potential technologies necessary for the proposed design.