Data correction for seven activity trackers based on regression models

Using an activity tracker for measuring activity-related parameters, e.g. steps and energy expenditure (EE), can be very helpful in assisting a person´s fitness improvement. Unlike the measuring of number of steps, an accurate EE estimation requires additional personal information as well as accurate velocity of movement, which is hard to achieve due to inaccuracy of sensors. In this paper, we have evaluated regression-based models to improve the precision for both steps and EE estimation. For this purpose, data of seven activity trackers and two reference devices was collected from 20 young adult volunteers wearing all devices at once in three different tests, namely 60-minute office work, 6-hour overall activity and 60-minute walking. Reference data is used to create regression models for each device and relative percentage errors of adjusted values are then statistically compared to that of original values. The effectiveness of regression models are determined based on the result of a statistical test. During a walking period, EE measurement was improved in all devices. The step measurement was also improved in five of them. The results show that improvement of EE estimation is possible only with low-cost implementation of fitting model over the collected data e.g. in the app or in corresponding service back-end.