Your phone can measure your movements but overestimates your daily steps. <\/p>
Your phone uses GPS to track distance travelled. But try disabling it and you\u2019ll notice that fitness apps will still give you step counts. They do this using your phone\u2019s built-in sensors, which usually include an accelerometer and a gyroscope.<\/p>
Accelerometers measure acceleration, while\u00a0gyroscopes help track the direction your phone is pointing in, usually\u00a0by measuring the movements of tiny components inside them that\u00a0generate electric signals as they move.\u00a0According to the experts, the best place to count steps is at the hip and so putting your phone in your pocket should provide a more accurate count than putting it in your bag.\u00a0<\/p>
A\u00a0study published last year\u00a0tried to verify the accuracy of smartphone apps for step-counting, comparing results from a medical-grade accelerometer worn on the hip to those from the WeRun app. 103 people used both at the same time, for three, week-long bouts of step-counting. The study showed the app overestimated the average daily step count of around 8,500 steps by close to 500 steps<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> Read more:<\/strong><\/p> Asked by: Amy Webster, age 15 via email<\/strong><\/p> To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Your phone can measure your movements but overestimates your daily steps. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34596,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/heres-how-inaccurate-your-phones-step-counter-could-be.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Your phone can measure your movements but overestimates your daily steps.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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