Improving posture and sitting behavior through tactile and visual feedback in a sedentary environment

This paper presents the concept Backtive: an interactive office chair with an accompanying mobile application to provide both tactile and visual feedback for the user to correct his posture and make him more aware of the sitting behavior throughout the day. The concept aims to make people unintentionally and more voluntarily aware of their sitting behavior while not interrupting their daily tasks. The concept is developed through a user centered design approach and by building a prototype to test feasibility as well as evaluating the concept. An evaluation with four persons received positive results with regard to credibility and expectancy of Backtive for posture improvement. Participants also expect that Backtive would be easy in use and are likely to integrate the system in their daily activities.