Zishi: A Smart Garment for Posture Monitoring

Abstract

Zishi is a garment designed to support posture monitoring for the purposes of rehabilitation training. It has been designed with attention to presenting accurate and informative feedback to patients regarding their thoracic and shoulder posture as well as comfort, ease of use, wearability and aesthetics. Zishi can be useful during rehabilitation training for a variety of patient groups. So far, we have been concerned with two broad training scenarios a) for arm-hand (neurological) rehabilitation training after stroke or for MS and spinal cord injury patients. B) for shoulder patients. Zishi consists of a garment integrated with smart textiles and wearable electronics. It presents real-time feedback as a vibration delivered through the garment, visual and audio instructions through android-hand held device (smartphone or tablet).