Experimental Investigation of the Usfulness of Bracelet Trackers in Sports and Health Monitoring: Critical Evaluation of a New Handheld Activity Monitoring Device Class

摘要

In professional sports and medicine, the use of electronic devices for activity monitoring and controlled exercising is commonly established since many decades. Due to miniaturization of computer electronics, sports and health devices became popular for non-elite sports users during the last twenty years, many of these in the appearance of watch-like systems, e.g. as running computers or as versatile heart rate monitors. Technologically based on such devices and since few time, various vendors in the sports and health field started to offer bracelet-like systems, while making the customers believe that the continuous use of such devices in daily life can be considered even more fashionable and helpful. This paper compares the new wristband device generation with the established, well-working sports watches. Significant findings about the sensor quality together with observation of the enforced Internet-based user handling yield a rather critical reflection about the usefulness of the this new device class for sports and health activity tracking.