Comparison of Wearable Fitness Trackers
Wearable fitness trackers are becoming increasingly popular in personal healthcare. Tech Companies advertise these devices as accurate and user friendly however, there are no objective research results to prove it. This research proposal proposes to compare four wearable fitness watches. Experimental data will be taken and compared from four real participants which will be used to calculate the accuracy, user friendliness and user satisfaction of these devices.
This essay will also match the opinions between participants and reviews on internet websites. We expect to find if some devices perform better than others in terms of accuracy, repeatability and user friendliness as well as steps and distance tracking, which are the most crucial measurements for fitness tracking. The manufacturing companies can thus use these real user reviews to develop new devices and reduce errors. This can be used as a recommendation to users looking for a fitness tracker.
Wearable trackers can help to motivate you during workouts and provide information about your daily routine or fitness in combination with your smartphone. These devices are becoming increasingly popular in personal healthcare, motivating people to exercise more throughout the day without the need for lifestyle changes.
The various choices in the market for wearable devices are also increasing, with customers searching for products that best suit their needs. Further, using a wearable device or fitness tracker can help people reach a fitness goal. Generally, companies display advertising for these kind of products and depict them as accurate, user friendly and beneficial however, there are no objective research results to verify their words.
Reviews of wearable trackers appear on many Internet sites [6]. Often, they show different opinions about the reviewed products. However, these opinions are subjective and do not show any research results that provide the accuracy of the information or the identity of the subjects in the experiments or the reviewer. Further, there is no objective data to show the results of the subjects reviewed.
This research proposal will compare the subjective and objective experimental results based on satisfaction, user friendliness and accuracy, which will reveal if some devices perform better than others. A wearable device is a new type of technology in the form of a small hardware that includes an application with tracking and monitoring fitness data such as distance walked, calories consumed as well as heart rate and sleep tracking.
Wearable devices can be synced to a computer or smartphone for data tracking. Wearable devices can be thought of as tiny computers that users wear on various parts of their body and are smarter and more accurate and can do much more than just calculate how far you walk. It is also possible to integrate them into more easily worn equipments.
Four wearable devices will be chosen randomly that are found in the top ten of best 2018 fitness trackers according to reviews and comparisons. For this proposal, we propose to choose devices which are described in details below: Comparison of Wearable Fitness Trackers.
- Apple Watch Series 3 – A device that monitors health, tracks workouts and gets the motivation needed to achieve the fitness goals. The market price of the Apple Watch Series 3 is US $279.
- Samsung Gear Sport – It tracks your fitness and diet, keeping you on the right path to reach fitness goals. It sets health and diet goals on phone and Gear Sport makes it easy to keep calories in balance and track calorie intake. It also offers tips and insights that one can use to stay on track. The market price of the Samsung Gear Sport is US $179.
- Huawei Watch 2 – It has GPS to track runs, an optical heart-rate sensor for health and NFC for mobile payments. It even offers a 4G LTE cellular connection. The market price of the Huawei Watch 2 is US $264.98.
- Fitbit Versa – It has 24/7 heart rate tracking with a smart, sharp touch screen and upto 4 days of battery life. It also features real time pace & distance with guided breathing sessions and customizable clock faces. The market price of Fitbit Charge 3 is $199.95.
The comparative results of the wearables that we will acquire will give us a clear picture about the performance and usefulness of these devices. The satisfaction evaluation will be used as a recommendation system for these four devices because it will compare the most important factors like step counting, hardware design, sleep tracking, UI app, nutrient analysis, calorific analysis and battery performance.
These evaluation results can be used by users to figure the best possible smartwatch as per their requirements. The opinions of all the participants will be compared and summarized with reviews from internet. These comparative reviews when combined with the satisfaction scores will be used to showcase the advantages and disadvantages of every device.
The experiment for accuracy and repeatability of each device will be used to assign a score based on table 4 which will help the users to compare these devices. The accuracy of tracking user activity is an important measurement for fitness monitoring however, the accuracy of personal tracking is different.
Factors like calories burned and steps counted depends on individual measurements such as gender, age, weight and height. At the same time, the accuracy of tracking daily activities like sleeping, walking or running is important as well and this experiment will give us useful insights about each device. This will be used by users to choose a specific device which satisfies their needs.
This research will try to evaluate if some devices perform better than others by focusing on both subjective and objective methods. The two experimentation methods will be used to verify the quality of the devices, both objectively and subjectively. There are many free fitness apps available to be downloaded on your smartphones without any special hardware requirements however, the results of these apps are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.
