Hi and welcome on my website.
I created this page to talk to you about the smileBack Project.
It’s a back panel that has two main functions:
- It provides you lumbar support everywhere. This means that also it can transform every chair in an ergonomic one.
- It monitors your posture with sensors and it tells you when your posture is not correct
- It tells you when you should take a break.
SmileBack can help you and your back pain will be only an old memory, like a picture in white and black.
Let’s see why the two points that I listed are so important to prevent back pain.
I want to say that I’m not a doctor, I’m just a guy that have chronical lumbar back pain and that want to help other people with my same problem.
I talked with doctors and posturologists and apparently the causes of back pain are mostly two:
- We sit down for too much time with incorrect postures
- We don’t take any break (you should take a break from sitting down around every 20 minutes)
The code of the smileBack Project
On github you can download the last version of the Arduino sketch.
https://github.com/theRAGEhero/smileBack-Project/
The circuit and electronic parts
Here you can find the Fritzing schematics needed to build your own smileBack.
How to build the sensors of smileBack-Project
In this video, I’ll show you how to build all the sensors that we need to build a smileBack, the smart back panel for you back to prevent back pain.
For this tutorial we need:
- Aluminum tape
- Wires
- Normal tape
- Plastic sheets
- Piezoresistive material (like Velostat or Linqstat)
- The schematics of the sensors that you can download
How to build the physical back panel
In this video, I’ll show you how to sew the cover of the smileback and to build the structure.
For this tutorial we need:
- An aluminum bar like the one used as a weight for curtains
- HDPE sheet (thickness around
- 3d foam like the one used in back panels for backpacks (any other fabric can work too)
- Foam like the one used in yoga mattress, thickness around 0.5cm
VIDEO COMING SOON
Download the files
Here you can download all the files, the schematics and the license.
Who we are
Alessandro Oppo is a Milanese that would like to run away from Milan, he is into computer science but he’d like to live without a phone, he is an artisan but he’d like to automate everything, he learns something and suddenly he wants to study something else. He is a self-taught person and he likes to fight against every kind of problem until everything works as he wants, often he is good at doing it!
The motto he keeps repeating in his head is: “If they achieve it I can do it too.”
He started the smileBack project because he needed it and he carried out since he had a prototype more than functional. He dealt with the design, the physical realization, and the algorithm coding.
Alessio Ciferri is 20 years old and he is studying computer science in Milan. He has chosen this field for passion and curiosity and he quickly discovered that he is good at it. When he is not cycling around the city he develops the app and the website for smileBack, loosing maybe too much time on stylesheets CSS.
Inside the smileBack Project, he covers the role of Head of Software Development Global Team also if he is alone (not anymore).
Work with us
We are an open group, our smart back panel is open source and we want to share everything with you about the smileBack Project.
We need testers and developers, we need your skills, we need your contribution.
You can help us debugging the code shared on GitHub or forking it and building a different version. (We are actually working of a new version completely different)
You can help us sharing our website on your social networks, you can help us sending this website to all your friends that have back pain and that need a smart back panel like the smileBack Project.
F.A.Q.
What is smileBack?
Smileback it’s a smart back panel that helps you to don’t have back pain anymore.
How does smileBack works?
smileBack checks your posture constantly and it gives you feedback when your posture is wrong.
smileBack also tells you when you should take a break.
How much smileBack costs?
smileBack is free! It’s released with the MIT Open Hardware license this means that you can build your own one following the instructions.
What about the cloud service of smileBack?
Once that you have built your own smart backpanel you can decide if connect it to the cloud using a specific key and have access to all the statistics that.
What are you doing with the statistics?
We want to study how back pain is evolving, we want to know why you have back pain and helping you to heal from it.
How can I build smileBack, the smart back panel?
There are videos that explain the entire process, soon it will be available a new version that will be much easier to build.
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