Smart 'Ergo' Chair

Project Overview

Final year of university was the most insightful and challenging year of my university life. I was given the opportunity to work on a project with a team of 3 other students. For our project study, we came up with an idea that we thought would absolutely be useful to the masses, especially for people in the workforce. We designed and developed a smart chair that would help people with back pain by forceful posture correction (but not like in a bad way ha-ha). We applied simple IoT engineering to create an automated reminder system that persistently alerts the chair user if their posture goes bad after a period of time. The project was a great learning experience and I was able to develop my technical skills. My love for programming grew twice as much as I did not enjoy being frustrated when I came across obstacles but would be 110% ecstatic after solving the problem just in time for a new obstacle right ahead (life of an engineer, isn't it?).

My Role

  1. I was the sole programmer for the project. I was responsible for the design of the microcontroller operation logic and programming (Arduino).
  2. Development of the GUI app for sending and receiving data from the MC.
  3. Quality assessment of electrical connections and components.
  4. Calibrating and calculating sensor input and output data, vital in accurate data gathering and appropriate positioning of the sensors to be installed on the chair.

Technologies Used

Software

  1. Arduino IDE
  2. Visual Studio
  3. C++
  4. VB .NET

Hardware

  1. Arduino Mega
  2. Ergonomic Chair
  3. Ultrasonic Sensors
  4. Ultrasonic Sensor brackets
  5. Breadboard
  6. Electrical wires, ...etc.

Project Visuals

Completed Prototype of the Smart Chair side view
Completed Prototype of the Smart Chair side view
Completed Prototype of the Smart Chair back view
Completed Prototype of the Smart Chair back view
Alignment of the sensors on the chair after bracket installation
Alignment of the sensors on the chair after bracket installation
Prototype testing when user is slouched forwards.
Prototype testing when user is slouched forwards.
Prototype testing when user's lower back is not against the backrest.
Prototype testing when user's lower back is not against the backrest.
Prototype testing when user's torso is leaning to the side while using seat arms for support.
Prototype testing when user's torso is leaning to the side while using seat arms for support.
User maintaining correct posture
User maintaining correct posture

Video Demo