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The technology in fitness trackers is alter the way researcher examine exercise , allow them to forgather much more elaborated entropy about how people move throughout the day , experts say .
The change is being drive , in part , by advance in accelerometer , the sensors often retrieve infitness trackersthat detect movement , and the pep pill and counselling of that movement . bear an accelerometer - incorporate gadget on the shank or the wrist can capture a individual ’s movement throughout an full solar day .
A man running with a heart rate monitor watch.
The wealthiness of data observe by today’saccelerometersprovides researchers the opportunity to study not only exercise , but also sitting , stand and walking , and finally get a skillful idea of how these activities touch on wellness , experts say .
In the past tense , researchers relied on questionnaires to find out what activities people engaged in during the twenty-four hours . But such surveys captured only a slice of masses ’s time , because they asked about specific activeness , such as whether a person went on a alert walk or pedal to function , tell Richard Troiano , an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute ’s Applied Research Program . [ 10 Fitness Apps : Which Is good for Your Personality ? ]
" With the variety of devices we ’re using now … you ’re capturing all of their strong-arm activity — all their bm visibility , from all different contexts , " Troiano said .
Accelerometer data will be especially utile for studyinglight action — like ambling around the power — which is hard to quantify and which masses may not always think back doing , Troiano said .
Eventually , subject area that utilize accelerometer will help researchers answer enquiry like , " How much posing is too much ? " and could lead to updates of interior activity guidelines , said William Haskell , a research worker at the Stanford University School of Medicine , who is conducting physical - activity research with accelerometers .
accelerometer and practise
Researchers have been using accelerometer to studyphysical activityas far back as the 1980s , but the amount of information they pick up was modified . For exercise , the accelerometers that were used in interior studies lead between 2003 and 2006 could collect data only once per minute , in one direction , Troiano allege .
Now , a number of progress in engineering science have greatly increase the amount of info accelerometers can garner . Today ’s accelerometer have higher - capacity batteries and more effective microprocessor , and can store much more information on small computer chips , Haskell said . In fact , mod accelerometers can enamour data 80 multiplication a 2nd , in three steering .
With this type of very well - grain data , " you could begin to use accelerometer to detect much more accurately the type of body process that people are doing , and the intensities they ’re doing , " Haskell said .
And whereas older accelerometer had to be worn clipped onto a girdle , during waken hour , today ’s accelerometer can be worn around - the - clock in awristband , Troiano said . Switching the position of an accelerometer from the waist to the wrist also advance the number of hour that multitude in study recall to wear the devices , Troiano said .
In a national discipline carry on in 2003 to 2004 , participant were asked to wear off accelerometers on their waists , and as few as 40 percent of participant in certain long time groups wore the gadget for at least six days . By contrast , in a work conducted in 2011 to 2012 of participants break accelerometers on the articulatio radiocarpea , 70 to 80 percent wear out the machine for at least six days , for an norm of 22 hours per day .
Researchers are still trying to figure out the good way to analyze the data pick up from wrist - worn accelerometers , but they go for to be able-bodied to accurately distinguish among many different types of activity , include session , standing , walk , cycling and riding in a vehicle , Troiano said .
If researcher agree on the best approach for analyzing accelerometer data , such a method could cross over to the apps used with commercial-grade fitness trackers , Troiano tell .
Changing action road map
Current U.S. guideline for physical activity recommend that adult get at least 150 minutes of moderate - intensity physical activity ( such as brisk walk ) , or 75 mo of vigorous bodily process ( such as running ) , per hebdomad .
But the guidelines do n’t say much about low-cal - chroma activity , such as how much meter you should pass sitting versus standing . " All we kind of say is , ' posture less , and be active more , ' " said Haskell , who was president of an expert panel that advised on the development of the current U.S. guidepost . That ’s because researcher do n’t have scientific data to back up any good word on lite action , he suppose .
However , that could change as researchers gather more entropy from studies in which people wear accelerometer , and are followed over time to see the health consequence .
" This technology provides the potential drop to develop much more prescriptive guideline " about idle activeness , andsedentary activity , Haskell said . finally , recommendations could intimate the optimum way for a person to spend his or her full 24-hour interval , Haskell said .
Some fittingness trackers already make testimonial to exploiter regarding light activity — such as get up every time of day at work — but these suggestions are not based on farsighted - full term work of the great unwashed wearing accelerometers .
A passport like getting up every hour is " what we believe we would be differentiate people , but we do n’t have the data to warrant guidelines , " Haskell said . " We need more information on those exit . "
