Image processing-aided working posture analysis: I-OWAS

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) rank among the commonest health problems both in the frequency of concurrency and in the money spent on these disorders, which mainly stem from poor working posture it also negatively affects employees in terms of job productivity, life quality, and both physical and social activities. Analyzing and improving working postures with scientific methods provides significant contributions in the field of controlling job performance and decreasing MSDs. OWAS (Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System) is one of the methods for analyzing working postures and can be applied to very diverse areas successfully. In this study, a prototype of integrated software, which is based on image processing techniques, was developed (I-OWAS), and the performance of the model was presented. I-OWAS begins with separating the video film into frames, producing OWAS codes belonging to working posture in each frame, and then classifying the images according to risk categories. Despite OWAS being a successful method for analyzing working postures, it requires an expert analysis. Also the manual analyzing process is so laborious and time consuming. I-OWAS provide the computer support for the manual coding stage and eliminates the need for an expert analyst; hence, the method can be widely used in industry.