At a time where health and fitness are all the rage, Fitbits
are an essential product for many Americans. The Fitbit is a physical activity
tracker, designed to help users become more active, eat healthy and
well-rounded meals, improve sleep, and generally become healthier and more
energetic people. With the ability to track steps, monitor heart rate, count
calories, and monitor sleep quality, this small and seemingly simple item is
packed with interesting and exciting features to motivate the user.
Of course, the cool features that the Fitbit encompasses are
made possible by computer science. We will focus in on just one function of the
Fitbit: step counting. How does the Fitbit count steps? The Fitbit uses a 3-axis
accelerometer to capture human motions by computing body movement (acceleration) into data. The data is then analyzed and presented to the user in the form of “frequency, duration, intensity, and patterns of movement to
determine your steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and sleep
quality”.
The function of step counting is enabled by a finely tuned
algorithm. This algorithm is made to search for motion
patterns that would indicate walking. If it detects a motion, it must determine whether or not the motion should could as a step. It does this by setting a threshold. If the motion is large enough that it surpasses the threshold, it will count as a step. If not, no step will be counted. It is so interesting how common everyday items, like the Fitbit, can be broken down and understood in
terms of if-statements and count functions.
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