If This Picture Is Blurry, Your Posture Sucks

A site made by UX designer Olesya Chernyavskaya promises to fix your posture by simply blurring your screen if you don’t maintain good form. It constantly checks your position using your webcam.

Fix Posture works by using a machine learning program to create a baseline of where your body parts are when assuming a good posture. Before starting, you’re asked to do a few things to correct your posture:

• Keep the screen at eye level
• Make your thighs parallel to the floor
• Put your feet flat on the ground,
• Pull your elbows close to your body
• Relax your shoulders and keep them level
• Fully support your back

Doing all this creates a series of reference points for the program to use when checking your posture. If you slouch, then your eyes or shoulders drop from their previous position, and the screen blurs. If your thighs aren’t parallel or your feet not flat, your eyes and shoulders change position and the screen blurs. It's that simple. Does it actually work? It’s hard to say (the screen remained blurry for a few different Motherboarders who tried it, perhaps because they have terrible posture), but it’s a fun game to play if nothing else.

The experiment only works on the Fix Posture site, but it comes with some ideas on how to maintain correct posture while you're browsing other sites. Simply setting a reminder to come back to the site every hour or so could work as a quick check on your posture. You can also take the experiment as motivation to get one of those fancy ergonomic chairs or even a standing desk. If all else fails, then get a "cyber suit that detects position of your body (even your legs !!),” Chernyavskaya writes.

More than 80 percent of all Americans have back problems at some time in their lives. There are many contributing factors here—heavy smartphone or computer use or poor sleeping habits for example—but the point is that our collective posture is wack. Any small step towards making us think about it is good news.