Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019 Page 41
IT is the plight of so many office
workers who sit hunched over
their desks answering emails.
But back pain caused by bad
posture could be a thing of the
past after a breakthrough.
Scientists have made wearable
sensors that detect when some-
one is sitting poorly and send
alerts to their smartwatch.
The technology, invented by
German researchers, uses sen-
sors less than two inches wide
which are placed on the legs,
arms, hip, torso and spine.
They pick up movements, ana-
lyse them via a computer then
send the wearer an alert simi-
lar to a text message if they
need to walk around.
Mathias Musahl, of the German
Research Centre for Artificial
Intelligence, said: ‘This works
like a fitness tracker to tell peo-
ple when they need to move
using alerts to an electronic
device. The technology immedi-
ately recognises if a movement
is performed incorrectly or if an
incorrect posture is adopted.’
The software, which will be
presented at the International
Consumer Electronics Fair in
Berlin next month, is likely to
be several years away from
being commercially available.By Victoria Allen
Science CorrespondentHow your
watch could
tell you to sit
up straight
they are busy ‘looking down’ at
their phones.
It continued: ‘For just one day,
busy, tech-savvy workers on Spin-
ningfields will be able to email, text
and message without the fear ofbumping into anyone!’ The stunt,
which was organised by retailer
AO.com and did not need planning
permission as it was on private land,
follows similar moves in Chinese cit-ies. And in Tel Aviv, Israeli planning
chiefs this year brought in ‘zombie
traffic lights’ – LED strips set into
the path that turn green or red in
sync with road signals – to attractthe attention of phone users look-
ing down. In 2014, as many as one in
seven British pedestrians admitted
crossing the road without looking –
while on their phone.By Liz HullAppy hour: A phone user uses a special lane in Spinningfields, Manchester, yesterdaySLOW LANE FOR PHONE ZOMBIES
Yes, it’s just a
stunt... but is
it REALLY such
an awful idea?
‘No fear of bumping
into anyone’EYES down, engrossed in a
mobile phone, many of us
have been guilty of texting on
the go.
Now one city has come up with a
unique way to protect screen ‘zom-
bies’ from bumping into each other
on the streets – by painting special
‘mobile phone lanes’.
The slow lanes were installed on a250ft stretch of Hardman Boulevard, in
Manchester’s business quarter Spin-
ningfields, for one day only this week.
According to a Facebook post on the
area’s page, Manchester is a ‘hot-spot’
for people bumping into others because