One of the biggest challenges for fitness freaks is knowing the exact amount of calories they’ve burned during a workout. The market is flooded with apps and wearable fitness trackers that claim to tell you the number of calories burned during exercise.
However, those calorie counting systems are mostly inaccurate, making it hard for fitness enthusiasts to track their body vitals properly. Now, researchers from Stanford University have developed a new calorie burn management system that claims to be compact, cheap, and most importantly accurate.
Higher accuracy rate than other wearables
The best part about the device is that users can assemble the wearable themselves. The engineers on the project claim that smartwatches and smartphones can be off by as much as 40-80 percent when it comes to calculating burned calories.
The system developed by the team is off only by 13 percent. Engineers tested the system with several participants and found that the device performs very well, with only one-third of the error seen on other smart wearables.
During the research, the engineers were able to identify the prime issue faced by other calorie counting systems. They found that the error occurs because they rely on the wrist or heart rate of the user. And, relying on these factors isn’t particularly indicative of the energy expenditure.
Easy and cost-effective to build
Researchers discovered that lake motion is more telling, and their experiments confirmed their theory. The portable device comprises two small sensors that the user needs to wear on the leg along with a battery and a compact microcontroller. As for the price, the system could cost around $100 to make, and the team made the list of components and code need for the system to be available to all.
Speaking of wearables, researchers at UC San Diego have developed a new wearable device that can charge small devices and sensors. It’s a thin and flexible strip that needs to be placed on a fingertip and generates small amounts of electricity when the user’s finger sweats or presses on it.
