An app approach to correcting the posture of smartphone users

Despite their benefits and convenience, the advent of technological gadgets such as smartphones and tablets has been often associated with downsides that affect various aspects of our life, including health. A herniated disc, or slipped disc, is one of the common causes of neck pain that can be exacerbated by the bad daily habits associated with the way we use our handheld devices. Tilting the neck for an extended period while using electronic gadgets such as smartphones and tablets has been attributed as another contemporary cause of disc slippage that leads to having a degenerative (cervical) disc. The literature has a profusion of medical studies that investigate the negative impact of having a poor posture while texting on smartphones. Many research studies tried to address this problem from different perspectives. We argue that the proposed approaches are impractical and too disruptive to the users' daily routine especially that additional hardware sensors must be worn all time. In this work we introduce an app-based solution that aims to alleviate the problem by monitoring the titling angle of the electronic gadget while being used. The app aims to track the degree of tilting and alert the user if it exceeds an unhealthy threshold (e.g., 45 degrees). Our preliminary empirical results show that our solution is effective and can contribute positively towards the daily habits of using those handheld devices.