Sadie is a robotic object whose intended use is to raise awareness about our everyday sitting habits and the resulting implications. Sadie is designed in a way that means she won’t interrupt her user’s work flow, but at the same time will provide enough of a presence to raise the user’s awareness of his/her sitting position. By recognizing the sitting position and imitating it in real time, Sadie stimulates an emotional response from the user that aims to cause a change in their behavioral habits. If Sadie recognizes the user is sitting for too long or with poor posture, she will generate a subtle gesture to attract his/her attention. Sadie is designed to operate in short sessions that get longer over time.

How does it work?

Sadie’s movements produced by two servo engines with the first engine responsible for the head movements and the second controlling the body. A propeller is attached to each engine and is connected to the head and body by strings which are embedded within Sadie’s vertebral structure. The stretching and releasing of the strings creates a resistance which generates a chain reaction in Sadie’s “vertebras”, bending her forwards and backwards. In addition, the engines, which are operated by an Arduino board, are connected to a Bluetooth component. This allows Sadie to be controlled remotely by a designated android app.