relax
Sitting in front of a computer desk for hours, intensely concentrating on a task, only to find yourself tensed up around your neck and trapezius muscles at the end of the day, with muscle knots or, more severely, muscle pain and headaches.Does this sound like you?Neck and shoulder/trapezius tension is definitely a problem that’s been bothering me since high school. Yes, I stretch and get massages, but those are only temporary solutions.We tend to tighten up our shoulders unconsciously whenever we feel stressed or when we are intensely focused on something. Since we sit in front of a computer screen most of the time, when we focus on something we also habitually lean forward. This causes our head – a significant weight – to be misaligned with the rest of our body, posing significant stress to our neck and trapezius muscles (this is sometimes known as the “nerd neck”).To solve this, I created a wearable device that you can attach to your trapezius muscles and the back of your neck. It uses electromyography to detect muscle tension, and when you tighten up more than you used to, it will gently vibrate and remind you to relax! An accelerometer is also used to detect when your neck is tilted forward, and the same vibration will remind you to keep your head upright! Your muscle tension and posture can also be monitored through an app and analyzed along with your other health data on your phonesThis works...somewhat. There were a couple of issues with this prototype:
- The device was too clunky, and the presence of the device can make the user tense up.
- The electrodes can fall off easily, and the reading isn't always accurate, which can trigger false vibrations.