UWB-PostureGuard: A Privacy-Preserving RF Sensing System for Continuous Ergonomic Sitting Posture Monitoring
It addresses a public health concern for computer users by offering a scalable, privacy-preserving mobile health solution, though it is incremental as it builds on existing UWB technologies.
The paper tackles the problem of monitoring ergonomic sitting posture without privacy invasion or discomfort by introducing UWB-PostureGuard, a contactless ultra-wideband sensing system that achieved 99.11% accuracy in real-world tests across 10 participants and 19 postures.
Improper sitting posture during prolonged computer use has become a significant public health concern. Traditional posture monitoring solutions face substantial barriers, including privacy concerns with camera-based systems and user discomfort with wearable sensors. This paper presents UWB-PostureGuard, a privacy-preserving ultra-wideband (UWB) sensing system that advances mobile technologies for preventive health management through continuous, contactless monitoring of ergonomic sitting posture. Our system leverages commercial UWB devices, utilizing comprehensive feature engineering to extract multiple ergonomic sitting posture features. We develop PoseGBDT to effectively capture temporal dependencies in posture patterns, addressing limitations of traditional frame-wise classification approaches. Extensive real-world evaluation across 10 participants and 19 distinct postures demonstrates exceptional performance, achieving 99.11% accuracy while maintaining robustness against environmental variables such as clothing thickness, additional devices, and furniture configurations. Our system provides a scalable, privacy-preserving mobile health solution on existing platforms for proactive ergonomic management, improving quality of life at low costs.