Smartwatches selection: market analysis and metrological characterization on the measurement of number of steps

This paper is focused on identifying the accuracy of smartwatches (SWs) on the measurement of number of steps. Five SWs have been identified based on technical characteristics and costs from a list of 32 SWs available on the market. A metrological characterization on the selected SWs has been made on six subjects wearing all the SWs and doing walking activity with natural, slow and fast pace. R, R2 and statistical confidence, with coverage factor equal to 2, are computed considering videos as reference system to identify the number of steps. The overall statistical confidence is 4.2% for natural pace, 7.5% for the slow pace and 7.1% for the fast pace.