Assessment of step accuracy using the Consumer Technology Association standard

Area of Science:

• Wearable technology
• Biomedical engineering
• Sports science

Background:

• Consumer Technology Association (CTA) standard 2056 provides guidelines for physical activity monitoring in fitness wearables.
• Accurate step counting is crucial for fitness tracking and health monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of commercially available physical activity devices for step counting during walking and running.
• To compare device performance against the CTA 2056 standard.

Main Methods:

• Twenty participants (10 male, 10 female) performed self-paced walking and running on a treadmill for five minutes each.
• Eight different wearable devices were tested simultaneously, two at a time, one on each wrist.
• Manual video analysis served as the benchmark for step counts, with Mean Absolute Percent Error (MAPE) calculated.

Main Results:

• Three devices exceeded the CTA's suggested MAPE < 10% during walking: Fitbit Surge (11.20%), Suunto Spartan Sport (22.93%), and TomTom Spark 3 (10.11%).
• During running, the Polar A360 exceeded the CTA standard with a MAPE of 10.66%.
• The Moto 360 demonstrated the lowest MAPE for both walking and running. Devices generally showed higher accuracy during running than walking, with the exception of the Polar A360.

Conclusions:

• The Apple iWatch series 1, Moto 360, Garmin 235, and Suunto Spartan Trainer met the CTA standard for step counting accuracy in both walking and running conditions.
• Accuracy varied significantly among devices, highlighting the importance of considering specific device performance when selecting fitness wearables.