The SMIGAA project aims to (further) develop and evaluate an intelligent and digital health assistant. This health assistant is intended to contribute to ergonomic sitting and regular exercise breaks while working at a desk by using a depth sensor to recognize the user's sitting posture and making real-time posture corrections and individual suggestions for exercise.

Funding Period

2023 - 2025

Institutions involved

• Deep Care GmbH
• Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation

Further development includes improving interaction with the health assistant by implementing behavior change techniques and integrating a personal approach to users to ensure sustainable use. Furthermore, specific balancing exercises will be developed based on the detection of highly stressed areas of the body. The evaluation is carried out as part of a controlled effectiveness study.

In addition, the health assistant's sensor technology makes it possible for the first time to collect extensive data on the health behavior of employees at desk workstations, which goes far beyond accelerometer data, for example. The resulting findings are to be published and can be used in the future to adapt interventions to actual behavior.

The project focuses on the following questions:

  - How must human-technology interaction be designed in order to achieve long-term behavioral change in employees who work predominantly at a desk?
  -   Is the product developed as part of the SMIGAA project effective and easy to integrate into everyday working life?