TruPosture is the smart wearable that will bring your lazy spine into line

It’s so easy to sit at your desk at work, working diligently for hours on end, barely even noticing that you’re slowly beginning to resemble an apostrophe with your hunched shoulders and curving spine, until you perform that stretch that makes you feel like a reanimating fossil. Sometimes I’ll find myself walking down the street, glance into a shop window, and wonder who the hunched crone staring back at me is.

Years of carrying heavy bags and using computers is leading us towards serious posture-related back pain, but a new smart wearable just launched on Indiegogo is looking to prevent this.

TruPosture is a sleeveless shirt with an in-built wire that runs down your spine and alerts you when you’re slumping via vibrations. The company behind TruPosture claim that a straight spine means a strong back and that wearing their smart shirt could help reduce back pain simply by helping you maintain healthy posture.

The shirt has a series of nano sensors built into it that keep an eye on how straight your back is. A connected app that’s available on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone allows users to set up their ideal posture position, so you’re at least allowed to set your own standard. I imagine progressive correction of posture is more sensible; I don’t think it would be particularly easy for me to go from wilting marshmallow to stick of bamboo in one day.

If you slump forward beyond the boundary you’ve set, the shirt will nudge you with a single vibration on your spine. If you lean back too far you’ll feel two vibrations. Cleverly, you’ll feel these vibrations on the exact place where your spine is out of alignment so you’ll know exactly where to adjust yourself.

It’s kind of like paying for those moments when your mum would shout “sit up straight!” and you’d give an exaggerated sigh but do it anyway. Thinking this shirt is a good idea is essentially a sign that you’re getting old but honestly, as someone whose spine is slowly beginning to morph into a banana, I need all the help I can get.

It’s not even limited to sitting at work, the app has options to program standing and stretching positions as well, allowing you to slowly train yourself into better all round posture.

The shirt is made from a breathable lycra that has been treated for odor control and is machine washable.

The company behind the shirt have set up their indiegogo campaign and they’re looking for $50,000 to ship in May 2016 across the US, EU, and Canada. Pledges start at $5, but if you’d like an actual shirt out of your pledge with a choice of size and colour, you’re looking at paying up around $99.

Main Image: Indiegogo