Speed Estimation From a Tri-axial Accelerometer Using Neural Networks

We propose a speed estimation method with human body accelerations measured on the chest by a tri-axial accelerometer. To estimate the speed we segmented the acceleration signal into strides measuring stride time, and applied two neural networks into the patterns parameterized from each stride calculating stride length. The first neural network determines whether the subject walks or runs, and the second neural network with different node interactions according to the subject´s status estimates stride length. Walking or running speed is calculated with the estimated stride length divided by the measured stride time. The neural networks were trained by patterns obtained from 15 subjects and then validated by 2 untrained subjects´ patterns. The result shows good agreement between actual and estimated speeds presenting the linear correlation coefficient r = 0.9874. We also applied the method to the real field and track data.