A Smartphone Step Counter Using IMU and Magnetometer for Navigation and Health Monitoring Applications

The growing market of smart devices make them appealing for various applications. Motion tracking can be achieved using such devices, and is important for various applications such as navigation, search and rescue, health monitoring, and quality of life-style assessment. Step detection is a crucial task that affects the accuracy and quality of such applications. In this paper, a new step detection technique is proposed, which can be used for step counting and activity monitoring for health applications as well as part of a Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) system. Inertial and Magnetic sensors measurements are analyzed and fused for detecting steps under varying step modes and device pose combinations using a free-moving handheld device (smartphone). Unlike most of the state of the art research in the field, the proposed technique does not require a classifier, and adaptively tunes the filters and thresholds used without the need for presets while accomplishing the task in a real-time operation manner. Testing shows that the proposed technique successfully detects steps under varying motion speeds and device use cases with an average performance of 99.6%, and outperforms some of the state of the art techniques that rely on classifiers and commercial wristband products.