A comprehensive comparison of simple step counting techniques using wrist- and ankle-mounted accelerometer and gyroscope signals

Abstract

The goal of this work is to compare the differences between various step counting algorithms using both accelerometer and gyroscope measurements from wrist and ankle-mounted sensors. Participants completed four different conditions on a treadmill while wearing an accelerometer and gyroscope on the wrist and the ankle. Three different step counting techniques were applied to the data from each sensor type and mounting location. It was determined that using gyroscope measurements allowed for better performance than the typically used accelerometers, and that ankle-mounted sensors provided better performance than those mounted on the wrist.

Keywords:

• Accelerometer
• activity monitoring
• gyroscope
• pedometer
• step counting

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Zackery Scalyer for his help with manual counting as a student researcher on this project. This work was partially supported by the Penn State Berks Advisory Board Research and Scholarship Support Award.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.