By Peter Weiss
Researchers in the heartland are developing a device that may achieve what our mothers couldn’t—getting us to sit up straight.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2004/06/4197.jpg?resize=98%2C150&ssl=1)
The prototype apparatus is an office chair fitted with a pressure-sensitive blanket. A computer analyzes pressure data from the blanket’s sensors.
Last week, the chair’s developers, Lynne A. Slivovsky and Hong Z. Tan of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., reported that their sensitive chair can distinguish among 10 different sitting positions.