How Fitness Watches Estimate Distance From Motion
How Fitness Watches Estimate Distance From Motion
Wearables combine several signals to estimate how far the user moved.
Outdoors a watch can use satellite positioning to track a route. When positioning is weak or unavailable, it may estimate distance from cadence, motion and a stride model.
Tall buildings, dense trees and indoor tracks create different measurement problems. A change in pace can also alter stride length enough to affect the estimate.
Compare repeated routes under similar conditions and inspect the route trace where available. A consistent small difference is easier to understand than a reading that changes with each lap.
