As a person who always sits in front of the monitor 24/7, my colleagues and I started to realize that we are beginning to establish another commonality other than our majors — back pain. Then I started to brainstorm around the problems of keeping up a good posture, and I got an idea of what other exercises require one to be in a straight back position.
Then I thought of pilates. Pilates, an exercise that requires one to not only have a straight back, but also a regulated breathing technique, and I thought making a pilates tracker would fit the agenda of the final crit.
There are two main interactions I am trying to tackle: the back posture and the breathing tempo.
For the back posture algorithm, I thought of manipulating the accelerometer’s XYZ values on each. If each value shifts in an inclined position, then the vibration motor 1 would buzz.
For breathing, two variations would be needed for the vibration: a short breath and a long breath. By having a button, one can change the tempo of the vibration motor 2. The vibration motor will pulsate in a standard breathing tempo.
Then the additional feature would be background music. It will be peaceful, zen music to corporate with one’s respiration as well. This will be done by integrating the mp3 function in the code.
The image on the left would be a more realistic appearance compared to the one on the right. The band will have the accelerometer in the middle, and the two vibration motors on each side.
This is what it would look like as a sketch.
Ambition:
- Developing a UI
- Visualizing the band with real scale components in them
- Other components?
