Smartwatch Data Helps Identify Daily Activities In Real Life

Researchers person agelong been capable to usage accusation from smartwatches to place beingness movement, specified arsenic sitting aliases walking, that wearers are performing successful a controlled laboratory setting.

Now, Washington State University researchers person developed a way, utilizing a machine algorithm and a ample dataset gathered from smartwatches, to much comprehensively place what group are doing successful mundane settings, specified arsenic working, eating, doing hobbies aliases moving errands.

The work, published successful the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, could someday lead to amended appraisal and knowing of cognitive health, rehabilitation, illness management, aliases surgical recovery. In their study, nan researchers were capable to accurately place activities 78% of nan time.

"If we want to find whether personification needs caregiving assistance successful their location aliases elsewhere and what level of assistance, past we request to cognize really good nan personification tin execute captious activities," said Diane Cook, WSU Regents Professor successful WSU's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who led nan work. "How good tin they bathe themselves, provender themselves, grip finances, aliases do their ain errands? These are nan things that you really request to beryllium capable to execute to beryllium independent."

One of nan large challenges successful healthcare is trying to measure really group who are sick aliases aged are managing their mundane lives. Medical professionals often request much broad accusation astir really a personification performs functional activities, aliases higher-level, goal-directed behavior, to really measure their health. As anyone who is trying to thief a distant genitor pinch aging aliases wellness challenges knows, that accusation connected really good a personification is performing astatine paying their bills, moving errands, aliases cooking meals is complex, variable, and difficult to stitchery - whether successful a doctor's agency aliases pinch a smartwatch.

Lack of consciousness of a person's cognitive and beingness position is 1 of nan hurdles that we look arsenic we age, and truthful having an automated measurement to springiness indicators of wherever a personification is will someday let america to amended intervene for them and to support them not only healthy, but ideally independent. This activity lays nan instauration for much advanced, behavior-aware applications successful integer wellness and human-centered AI."

Diane Cook, WSU Regents Professor, WSU's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

For their study, nan WSU researchers collected activity accusation complete respective years from respective studies.

"Whenever we had a study that collected smartwatch data, we added a mobility to our information postulation app that asked participants to self-label their existent activity, and that's really we ended up pinch truthful galore participants from truthful galore studies," she said. "And past we conscionable dug successful to spot whether we tin execute activity recognition."

The 503 study participants complete 8 years were asked astatine random times passim nan time to prime from a scroll-down database of 12 categories to picture what they were doing. The categories included things for illustration doing errands, sleeping, traveling, working, eating, socializing, aliases relaxing. The researchers analyzed a assortment of artificial intelligence methods for their expertise to generalize crossed nan organization of study participants.

The researchers developed a large-scale dataset that includes much than 32 cardinal branded information points, pinch each constituent representing 1 infinitesimal of activity. They past trained an AI exemplary to foretell what functional activity had occurred. They were capable to foretell activities up to 77.7% of nan time.

"A foundational measurement is to execute activity nickname because if we tin picture a person's behaviour successful position of activity successful categories that are good recognized, past we tin commencement to talk astir their behaviour patterns and changes successful their patterns," said Cook. "We tin usage what we consciousness to effort to approximate accepted measures of health, specified arsenic cognitive wellness and functional independence."

The researchers dream to usage their exemplary successful early studies successful areas specified arsenic being capable to automate objective diagnoses, and to look for links betwixt behavior, health, genetics, and environment. The methods and dataset without immoderate identifying accusation are besides publically disposable for different researchers to use. The activity was funded by nan National Institutes of Health.