Technology-Enhanced Monitoring of Physical Activity

Abstract

Traditional activity trackers use acceleration sensors to trace when individuals are walking, running, or standing still. The programming in these devices then determines the number of steps, walking or running distance, floors climbed, and calories associated with the physical activity throughout the day. Other than counting steps, there is little interaction to motivate an increase in pace or to provide feedback into how vigorous the activities are, besides heart rate sensors. The same number of steps walked represent different calories burned at different speeds. Thus, more energetic exercises provide enhanced physical activity. This work describes a wearable tracking device for enhanced monitoring of physical activity. An accelerometer was used to measure the acceleration level at the wrist location and compared against a threshold to illuminate a series of LEDs based on the number of lights turned on and color emitted. This wearable prototype provides visual feedback to let the user know how energetic the activity level is.