Energy expenditure analysis: A comparative research of based on mobile accelerometers

Abstract

Nowadays, the Metabolic Equivalent Task (MET) is the most often used indicator for energy expenditure (EE) calculation of physical activity (PA). The use of novel devices based on inertial movements (e.g. accelerometers) enable the measurement of the PA using “counts”:, where each count is an aggregated value that can be used to determine the number of METs. For some kind of users, such as elderly people or patients in AAL environments, the MET is an important indicator in order to maintain a good health. At present, there exist several types of inertial devices that enable different forms of count calculation and types of exercise monitoring. From the point of view of process analysis and infrastructure needed, they differ in several aspects, such as extra devices required and out-of-device processing. This paper presents a survey analysis about the possibilities of different types of accelerometers to measure EE in AAL contexts. To achieve this objective, we have conducted several experiments based on the performing of different exercises with different accelerometers placed in different body parts.