POSTUREPACK

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  Landing Page

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  Dashboard

Inspiration

Our team was inspired by the Sonny Angel Posture Pal, a plushie designed to help you stay upright while working. We loved the "cozy desk" aesthetic, but we wanted to take it a step further by adding live, interactive feedback. We realized that while a plushie is a great physical reminder, a digital companion could actually "see" your posture and reward you for maintaining it in real-time.

What it does

POSTUREPACK.SYS turns spinal health into a gamified experience. Using an ultrasonic distance sensor, the system monitors your alignment. If you begin to slouch, your digital mascot—the Mochi Mage—visibly slumps and loses energy. However, as long as you maintain "Optimal Alignment," you earn XP and level up your companion. It transforms a difficult physical habit into a rewarding, "pet-sim" game loop.

How we built it

The project is a true hardware-software hybrid. We built the retro-style Neubrutalist UI using Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. On the hardware side, we used a Raspberry Pi and Python to handle the distance sensor logic. The sensor tracks the user's distance from the desk and pipes that data directly into our web state to trigger real-time character changes.

Challenges we ran into

As Mechanical Engineering students, our biggest challenge was the electronics integration. We spent a significant amount of time matching voltages on the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins and debugging the circuit to ensure accurate readings. Connecting that local Python hardware data to a modern web frontend required a steep learning curve in real-time data communication.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of making raw sensor data feel "alive." It is one thing to see a distance measurement on a screen, but it is another to see your mascot "wake up" and glow when you sit up straight. We’re also proud of the UI design, which successfully blends a vintage OS "utility" vibe with a cute, modern gaming experience.

What we learned

This hackathon taught us the power of Human-Computer Interaction. We learned that people are much more motivated by a character’s well-being than a simple red warning light. Technically, we leveled up our skills in circuit wiring, voltage regulation, and managing a full-stack project that bridges the physical and digital worlds.

What's next for POSTUREPAL

We want to shrink the design. Our goal is to create a custom 3D-printed "tech backpack" for the physical Posture Pal plushie that houses the sensor and electronics. We also plan to add more characters to the COMPANION.EXE library and create more complex reward systems to keep users sitting tall.

Built With

• html
• javascript
• python
• typescript