Predicting lying, sitting, walking and running using Apple Watch and Fitbit data
Date
2021
Authors
Fuller, Daniel
Rahimipour Anaraki, Javad
Simango, Bongai
Rayner, Machel
Dorani, Faramarz
Bozorgi, Arastoo
Luan, Hui
Basset, Fabien
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BMJ Open Sport & Exercise
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Article
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Abstract
Objectives This study’s objective was to examine whether commercial wearable devices could accurately predict lying, sitting and varying intensities of walking and running.
Methods We recruited a convenience sample of 49 participants (23 men and 26 women) to wear three devices, an Apple Watch Series 2, a Fitbit Charge HR2 and iPhone 6S. Participants completed a 65min protocol consisting of 40min of total treadmill time and 25min of sitting or lying time. The study’s outcome variables were six movement types: lying, sitting, walking self-paced and walking/running at 3 metabolic equivalents of task (METs), 5 METs and 7 METs. All analyses were conducted at the minute level with heart rate, steps, distance and calories from Apple Watch and Fitbit. These included three different machine learning models: support vector machines, Random Forest and Rotation forest.
Results Our dataset included 3656 and 2608min of Apple Watch and Fitbit data, respectively. Rotation Forest models had the highest classification accuracies for Apple Watch at 82.6%, and Random Forest models had the highest accuracy for Fitbit at 90.8%. Classification accuracies for Apple Watch data ranged from 72.6% for sitting to 89.0% for 7 METs. For Fitbit, accuracies varied between 86.2% for sitting to 92.6% for 7 METs.
Conclusion This preliminary study demonstrated that data from commercial wearable devices could predict movement types with reasonable accuracy. More research is needed, but these methods are a proof of concept for movement type classification at the population level using commercial wearable device data.
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Keywords
exercise physiology, exercises, health promotion, measurement, physical activity
Citation
Fuller D, Anaraki JR, Simango B, et al. Predicting lying, sitting, walking and running using Apple Watch and Fitbit data. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine 2021;7:e001004. doi:10.1136/ bmjsem-2020-001004
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item.page.relation.ispartofseries
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2020-001004