Posture Pal is an interactive, posture-correcting desk companion created for BoxBots 2025, a hardware hackathon focused on robotics and human-centered design.
Teammates: Sonya Qu, Ariel Liu, Mansi Katarey, Alexandra Roszczenko
Created for: BoxBots - Robotics And Cardboard Hackathon
Using OpenCV, Python, and Arduino, it monitors your posture in real time and responds through a cardboard robotic pet that reacts to your body alignment, gently encouraging you to sit up straight.
Meet Chiro! 🐾
- 🧍♀️ Real-time posture detection using your webcam (OpenCV)
- 🎯 Automatic calibration of your “good posture” in the first 60 seconds
- 📊 Monitors spine curvature and head tilt (left-right and forward-back)
- 💡 Reacts every 30 frames — gentle reminders rather than constant nagging
- 🐕 Physical feedback through servos and sound:
- GOOD posture: ears upright, tail wagging fast
- WARN posture: ears slightly down, tail wagging slowly
- BAD posture: ears down completely, faint barking sound, tail stops moving
- Captures webcam frames.
- Calibrates your “good posture baseline” during the first 30 frames.
- Tracks:
- Spine curvature
- Head tilt (left/right, forward/back)
- Every 30 frames, it checks if you’ve deviated from your baseline.
- If you stay off-baseline for 60 frames:
GOOD→ upright postureWARN→ mild slouch or tiltBAD→ deeper slouch or lean
The posture state is sent to the Arduino via Serial communication.
- The Arduino listens for posture updates (
GOOD,WARN, orBAD) via Serial. - It controls:
- A servo motor for the ears
- A servo motor for the tail
- A buzzer (for soft barking when posture is bad)
| Posture | Ears | Tail | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOOD | Upright | Wags fast | — |
| WARN | Slightly down | Wags slowly | — |
| BAD | Fully down | Stops | Soft bark |