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Stop Slouching! Build a Real-time AI Posture Guard with MediaPipe and Vue.js
Engineers often develop poor posture from prolonged computer use, leading to back pain and reduced productivity. This article presents Posture Guardian, a browser tool using computer vision and pose estimation to detect and alert users about slouching and forward head posture. The tool leverages MediaPipe for pose estimation and Vue.js for the user interface. The architecture involves capturing webcam frames, processing them with MediaPipe to detect skeletal landmarks, and using trigonometry to calculate angles indicative of poor posture. Prerequisites include Vue.js 3, MediaPipe Pose, basic JavaScript knowledge, and a webcam. The setup involves initializing the MediaPipe Pose model to identify key body landmarks. "Forward head" posture is detected by calculating the horizontal distance between the ears and shoulders. This logic is integrated into a Vue component that uses the Webcam API to feed the video stream to the pose model. The component displays real-time posture status and triggers browser notifications when poor posture is detected. Production readiness necessitates handling variations in lighting, camera calibration, and preventing notification spam. The tool can be extended with features like stretch timers and posture scoring.