A Mobile Application Based Smart System for Supporting Yoga Activities and Health Monitoring

 

Prasanna M¹*, Arunkumar T², Arunkumar S²

¹School of Information Technology, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.

²School of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.

 

ABSTRACT:

‘Health is wealth’ which is now changed to ‘Losing health for gaining wealth’ in the modern society. People are having busy schedules and they are not concerned about their health. Studies shows that a lion share of people all over the world undergoes mental stress due to the circumstances and pressures from both family and office. This mental stress factors can physically and mentally deteriorate the creativity and productivity of a person. Yoga can be considered as one of the finest solutions in this case though it refreshes both physically and mentally. Yoga transforms a person balanced with mental, physical and spiritual elements in the right composition. In this technology era, it will be good to integrate yoga with the trends of technology. This work proposes a scheme of integrating and monitoring yoga activities using the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) and a smart application. The body sensors (Pressure, temperature, humidity) attached with the person doing yoga senses relevant data and is processed using a central processor (Smart phone or smart devices) to provide necessary suggestions or feed backs to the user. This work will provide a platform to the yoga practice person to monitor and review their yoga activities by themselves. Our research results claims that the various parameters like blood pressure and heart beat rate is improvised a lot after practicing yoga and our system is much helpful for the yoga persons to practice yoga in an effective manner.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Now a day's people are less concerned about their health. Clinical studies shows that nearly 40% of the people are unaware about the diseases or health problems they are having. People don’t even follow proper diet plans nor even perform regular check-ups. This leads to some unexpected and unwanted results or happenings in their life. In order to avoid that it is better to find some time to perform some exercise and diet plans. Remember the classic quote “Prevention is better than cure”. Most of the middle aged people health problems are occurred due to stress and pressure which are faced from their organizations or even from family.

The best solution is to make relax that person physically and mentally. There are many solutions like doing warm – up exercises and other relaxation techniques. Meditation can be a best possible solution to make the mind free and relaxed. But we prefer to perform Yoga which may help them to relax both physically and mentally.

 

Yoga is an ancient practice of mental, physical and spiritual exercise. Various clinical studies proved that practicing yoga can reduce health risks and can be utilized for psychological healing process. About 75% of investment in healthcare is spent on lifestyle related chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes [1], obesity and cancer. The solution to these conditions  are simple, but the implementation takes a bit of determination and motivation. With little persistent efforts, over the course of several months, can help the human body fight and even develop the immunity against these lifestyle related medical conditions.

 

Yoga has shown promising results in fighting against many conditions including metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. [2][3][4] Studies [5][6] have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga practices against diseases like cancer, schizophrenia, asthma and heart diseases. It has been scientifically concluded by Sovova [7] that despite low energy expenditure, yoga practices are better in some cardio respiratory fitness parameters than other aerobic activities recommended by current guidelines for Cardiovascular Diseases prevention. Other studies have provided evidence of positive effect on individuals practicing yoga regularly in factors like weight maintenance [8], BMI [9,10] and diet [10]. Yoga increases feeling of wellness, positive attitude, energy levels, memory attention, concentration, social skills, self-acceptance, flexibility and strength. It reduces anxiety and stress, depression and tension, sugar and cholesterol levels, hyperthyroidism, weight, blood pressures, arthritis and so on.  We suggest people to follow various yoga postures to get rid from above mentioned problems in a natural and healthy way. There are many large set of yoga postures available which will help the people to get rid from physical health issues. Some of the basic yoga postures are shown in Figure 1. These figure sources is provided in reference [11].

 

We propose an Android app that is connected to an Internet of Things (IoT) based hardware system which will monitor blood pressure, heartbeat and temperature of the yoga person. This app will assist the person in performing the various yoga postures and help in sensing the body responses. This Android App based IoT kit also gives yoga asana directions for naïve users and experts and is easy to handle and use.

 

The remaining part of this paper comprises of various sections like Related works, Proposed system architecture, System analysis and results and Conclusions. The various existing works done in this area so far is discussed in Related works section. System architecture and design methodology is discussed in section 3. System analysis and observed results are provided in section 4 and finally our derived conclusions are provided in last section.

 

 

Fig. 1: Sample Yoga postures

 

RELATED WORKS:

Cramer et al [12] suggests yoga is a safe and effective way for reducing waist circumference and systolic blood pressure in patients having metabolic syndrome who are not following the normal exercise routines. Vijayaraghavan et al [13] proposed a smart phone application which makes uses of Yoga and music therapy techniques to reduce the mental stress of a human. Their system monitors the EEG reading of the person while he is performing this yoga and music therapy with the aid of this mobile app. They claim that their system can restore the calm state of mind of the user during any stressed period.

 

Zhaoyuan conducted a research [14] and suggests that yoga can play a vital role in men’s bodies and mind. He claims that yoga can activate body fat, regulating heart rate, decreases the stress over heart and energizing the physical health of men. It is claimed that men performing yoga can improve their interpersonal relationship and improves social adaptability.

 

Edgar et al conducted a research on the effects of Sudarshan Kriya yoga on persons having anxiety and depression disorders [15]. They choose a set of 46 persons and is divided into two categories. Conventional therapy is done for one group and Sudarshan Kriya yoga was suggested for second group. After 15 days, it was found that the second group has a better improvement in reducing their anxiety and depression levels.

 

Chang et al performed a literature review on the benefits of doing yoga for persons having back pain [16]. Their results claim that yoga can be followed as a treatment strategy for persons having chronic low back pain.

 

Kim et al performed an analysis on the effects of practising yoga in reducing the neck pain [17]. Their results prove that yoga will be beneficial for persons to reduce their neck pain and other body disorders in an efficient and effective manner.

 

Most of the research work in this area mainly focuses on the effect of yoga in reducing mental anxieties and depression or body pain factors. Our work differs from above all, though it not only suggests the benefits of yoga but also helps the person to periodically monitor the effects of performing yoga with the help of our hardware kit and mobile application. We suggest the person to follow a certain set of yoga postures to get rid from various physical and health disorders. The architecture details and usage methodology of our yoga supporting kit is discussed in the next section.

 

 

 

PROPOSED MODEL:

We propose a defined set of yoga postures to perform by the persons who has some physical or health disorders. The effect of performing this yoga postures can be periodically monitored by using our IoT based hardware kit embedded with suitable sensors to monitor body temperature, pressure level and heart beat rate. The hardware kit is supplemented with a mobile app which may keep track of the various values read from the yoga person’s body using kit. Based on the analysis of these stored values. It uses the concept of artificial intelligence and data mining concepts to suggest the yoga postures (asanas) to be performed to improve their health.

 

We have suggested a model for assisting yoga practisers [18]. The proposed hardware kit architecture is shown in Figure 2. Basically, four sensors are used in this system. The various sensors are: DHT-22 (Humidity and Temperature sensor), ADXL-345 (Accelerometer) and Heart rate sensor (HRM-2511E) Arduino Nano with ATMega 328 micro-controller was used as board for connecting sensors and transmission module. A Bluetooth module (HC-05) is used to connect the kit to android phone with bluetooth module.

 

 

Fig. 2: Prototype embedded kit

 

An android application was developed to receive and process the data from the developed system. The Bluetooth module can transfer and receive the data using wireless communication with ease. This allows yoga practitioners to perform postures without the hassle of connection wires from the phone. While running the application, a main page displays the option for starting the default yoga postures (asanas). Then a series of images and text is displayed after five seconds of postures for every asanas. Also the voice clip for text displayed in screen is played. This application provides the option for user to change the time interval.  Similarly, swiping right from left side of screen will open a side drawer box. This box contains options for history, uploading data, videos and written instructions. The history option will lead to a screen displaying graphs of user’s history. The videos option will load a screen with a number of yoga videos that can be accessed. Tapping on the uploading data option will lead to a screen where the data received can be entered into the application database manually. Finally, if a user wants the read the posture instruction, the option “Written instructions” should be tapped. The application automatically creates sockets and connects to the hardware.

 

Table 1: Yoga postures for various health disorders

Disorders	Yoga postures
Constipation	Suryanamaskar,ArdhaMatsyendrasanaMakarasanaPavanamuktasana
Obesity	Suryanamaskar, Navasana, Bhujangasana, Mayurasana(only for gents), Pashimottanasana, Makarasana, Halasana, Uttanapadasana
Diabetes	Pashimottanasana, Makarasana, Yogamudra, ArdhaMatsyendrasana, Suptavajrasana, Uttanapadasana, Mayurasana (only for gents), Anulomvilom pranayama
Headache	Pashimottanasana, Bhujangasana, Halasana, Shavasana, kapalbhati and Anulomvilom pranayama pranayama, Sirsasana ( King of all asanas), sarvangasana( queen of all asanas)
High Blood Pressure	Vajrasana, Supthavajrasana, Makarasana, Sarvangasana(queen of all asana), Kapalbhati and anulomvilom pranayama, Shavasana for 10 minutes, Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, Uttanapadasana
Low Blood Pressure	Suryanamaskar , Vajrasana, Supthavajrasana, Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, Uttanapadasana, Makarasana, Sarvangasana(queen of all asana), Kapalbhati and anulomvilom pranayama, Shavasana for 10 minutes
Heat Disease	Chakrasana, Vajrasana, Bhujangasana, Uttanapadasana, Makarasana, Pavanmukthasana, Sirsasana, Anulomvilom pranayama, Take rest after every asana by staying in shavasana for 5 minutes

 

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND RESULTS:

Our system is evaluated by various yoga practice persons under various age groups with various health disorders like Diabetics, Low blood pressure, High blood pressure, head ache, obesity and cardiac disorders. We collected the value in regular periods and is constantly analysed. We collected the data values before performing our predefined set of yoga postures (asanas) and after performing the predefined set of yoga postures by using quantitative and qualitative analysis. All health disorders except head ache is measured using quantitative parameters. The collected data set for various people set for various health disorders are illustrated in the below tables.

 

In the following table, we had chosen a set of 11 people with an age range of 21 – 50. Their average age is 39. We constantly measured the heart beat rate and blood pressure using our IoT kit and the data is stored in a database with the help of mobile App.  We measured the same parameters after they performed the various asanas mentioned in Table 2. The analytical result is shown in Figures 3 and 4.

 

Table 2: Data set collected using IoT kit

Sl. No	Average Heart beat rate (bpm)		Systolic BP		Diastolic BP
	Before	After	Before	After	Before	After
1	68	65	110	98	68	90
2	65	68	75	88	96	90
3	54	63	76	99	49	82
4	109	93	145	123	111	94
5	89	76	137	111	89	97
6	104	69	200	140	65	89
7	45	73	184	130	59	78
8	88	72	90	92	80	85
9	58	65	102	102	83	95
10	53	64	113	115	84	90
11	104	97	98	102	100	95

BP: Blood Pressure                         bpm: Beats per minute

 

Fig. 3: Heart beat rate analysis

 

Fig. 4: Blood pressure analysis

 

The normal heart beat range of a human is estimated between 60 – 100bpm (beats per minute) [19]. From our analytical graph it is clear that, with the aid of this IoT yoga kit and the asanas we mentioned, the selected persons achieved a better stable heart beat rate. 90% of the selected persons achieved a pulse rate of nominal values.

This kit also measured the blood pressure of selected persons and is updated in the mobile App database. The samples from those database is also illustrated in previous table numbered 2. The blood pressure rate of persons before practising this kit and yoga postures are measured. After using our practice kit for a period of 2 months, we again collected the blood pressure rate. The analysis of blood pressure of selected persons before and after using our proposed kit is illustrated in Figure 5.

 

The ideal value of blood pressure is 90/120 mmHg [20]. From the figure, it is clear that before using our Yoga kit, some persons in those sets possess high blood pressure or low pressure. But by practising the suitable remedial yoga postures for a period of two months, most of the person’s blood pressure falls in the normal range. We ensure that those person’s whose value still not in normal range can be made in normal by further usage of this kit for an advanced period of two or four months.

 

The ultimate advantage of our system with the traditional yoga kits are it will suggest the yoga postures based on the inputted parameters (pressure, temperature and heart beat rate). It periodically monitors and alerts the user with the changes to be made in yoga postures through the mobile app. User can perform yoga in a much relaxed and efficient manner using our IoT based yoga kit.

 

CONCLUSION:

Though the entire world is moving towards smart technology and IoT based systems, we are proposing an IoT based yoga kit for assisting persons who performs yoga. This kit will help the yoga persons to follow a predefined set of yoga postures based on their health conditions. The mobile app will assist them to constantly monitor their improvements and thereby intelligently suggests the modifications to be followed by the yoga person. The system intelligence is supported by the data analysis platforms. The experimental evaluation proves that our suggested yoga postures will help in curing the various health disorders and thereby keeping the person healthy than the other existing alternatives.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: 

The authors gratefully acknowledge VIT University, Vellore for the support through Seed Grant for Research. We also express our sincere gratitude towards Amrutha Yoga centre for providing the necessary help.

REFERENCES:

1.       Available at: http://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes.

2.       K. E. Innes, C. Bourguignon, and A. G. Taylor. Risk indices associated with the insulin resistance syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and possible protection with yoga a systematic review.  Journal of the American Board of Family Practice. 18(6); 2005: 491–519.

3.       K. E. Innes and H. K. Vincent. The influence of yoga-based programs on risk profiles in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.  Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 4(4); 2007: 469–486.

4.       J. A. Raub. Psychophysiologic effects of Hatha Yoga on musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary function: a literature review.  Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.  8(6); 2002: 797–812.

5.       Smith et al. An evidence-based review of yoga as a complementary intervention for patients with cancer. Psycho-Oncology. 18 (5); 2008: 465–475 .

6.       Vancampfort et al. Yoga in schizophrenia: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. ActaPsychiatricaScandinavica. 126 (1);12–20.

7.       Sovová, Eliška et al. Positive effect of yoga on cardio respiratory fitness: A pilot study. International journal of yoga. 8(2) ; 2005: 134-135.

8.       A. R .Kristal et al. Yoga practice is associated with attenuated weight gain in healthy, middleaged men and women. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 11(4); 2005:28–33.

9.       N. Moliveretal. Increased Hatha yoga experience predicts lower body mass index and reduced medication use in women over 45 years. International Journal of Yoga. 4; 2011: 77–86.

10.     A. Palasuwan et al. Dietary intakes and antioxidant status in mind-body exercising pre-and postmenopausal women. Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging. 15(7); 2011:577–584.

11.     Available at: http://healthswift.blogspot.in/2013/07/hatha-yoga-poses-simple-postures.html.

12.     Cramer et al. Yoga for metabolic syndrome: A systematic review and meta analysis. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. 23(18); 2016: 1982-1993.

13.     G. R. Vijayaragavan et al. EEG monitored mind de-stressing smart phone application using Yoga and Music Therapy. International Conference on Green Computing and Internet of Things (ICGCIoT). 2015: 412-415.

14.     H. Zhaoyuan.  Research into Yoga's promoting functions for men's health. Proceedings 2011 International Conference on Human Health and Biomedical Engineering. 2011: 689-692.

15.     E. Toschi et al. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga improves cardiac autonomic control in patients with anxiety-depression disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders.  21; 2001: 74-80.

16.     Chang et al. Yoga as a treatment for chronic low back pain: a systematic review of the literature.  J. Orthop. Rheumatol. 3(1); 2016: 1-8.

17.     Kim, S.-D. Effects of yoga on chronic neck pain: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Physical Therapy Science. 28 (7); 2016: 2171-2174.

18.     Prasanna M et al. A Real time monitoring system for Yoga practioners. International Journal of Intelligent Engineering and systems. 10(3); 2017: 85-93.

19.     Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate.

20.     Available at http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/BloodPressureandyou/Thebasics/Bloodpressurechart.

 

 

Accepted on 15.07.2017        © RJPT All right reserved

Research J. Pharm. and Tech 2017; 10(11): 3863-3867.