Posture Pad

The "Posture Pad", a project produced in collaboration with fellow ITP student Erik Braund, was meant to provide a user with real time information that could help him or her understand, and possibly improve, their behaviors and positioning while seated. Using the common neoprene laptop case as inspiration, the "Posture Pad" was designed to be lght and portable. A user could drape it over any seating environment, connect it to a computer, and receive real-time visual posture. Instead of instructin a user on “how” they should sit, the system offered feedback on how much a user has deviated from an initial baseline. The intention was to encourage users to monitor their behaviors over periods of time and react accordingly.

In the video above, Large red spheres indicate more intense pressure while small blue spheres indicate minimal pressure readings. Eight Force Sensing Resistors (FSRs), also known as pressure sensors, were evenly distributed on the underside of the pad. All eight were wired to a single Mega Arduino. The sensor values were transferred from Arduino into Processing, mapped into an appropriate range, and then visibly represented according to their respective positions. The pad was constructed out of a large sheet of neoprene.