Technology and health: Physical activity monitoring in the free living environment

The use of remote sensing technologies and software is well established in the sports domain. These technologies may include inertial sensors, magnetometers, GPS and wireless technologies, or a combination of such devices. Detailed activity information, sports biomechanics and performance measures can be extracted as a tool for athletic coaching and technique assessment. In the domain of health, there is growing interest in leisure time physical activity as a preventative measure to combat inactivity, obesity and onset of cardiovascular disease in the adult population. This has lead to recent interest in the quantification of physical activity and daily energy expenditure in community life. Metrics such as activity banding, gait quantification and daily energy expenditure are directly relevant to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. This paper introduces some challenges in deploying existing wearable sensors for sports performance into the healthcare domain. These challenges include user requirements and technical competence, extended duration monitoring and working within a biomedical rather than sporting culture. A test protocol using multiple inertial sensors was developed and tested in a single case study to investigate the validity of the method.