Can Wearable Devices Accurately Measure? A Study on Their Limitations and Errors

TapTechNews August 21st news, in recent years, wearable devices such as smart watches and fitness bracelets have gradually become popular and have become an indispensable part of many people's daily lives. These devices can monitor various physiological data such as heart rate, number of steps, sleep quality, and calorie consumption, providing people with quantitative health management information. However, can these devices accurately measure the indicators they claim?

A systematic review of existing scientific literature found that wearable devices perform well in measuring heart rate, heart rate variability, cardiopulmonary function, etc., but there are large errors in the measurement of energy consumption and sleep quality. The error rate of heart rate is plus or minus 3%, the measurement error of energy consumption can reach -21.27% to 14.76%, and the measurement error of sleep quality is 12% to 180%..

Researchers pointed out that many different research groups use inconsistent methods when validating the same device, and the lack of standardization leads to conflicting results, making it difficult to draw a clear conclusion about the accuracy of the device. In addition, factors such as sample size, participant demographics, and experimental conditions also increase the complexity of interpreting the research results.

Researchers also said that the new product release speed of wearable devices is very fast, which exacerbates the above problems. Many companies release new products every year, and it is difficult for researchers to keep up with this speed. The processes of research planning, ethical approval, participant recruitment and testing, result analysis and publication, etc. usually take more than 12 months. By the time the research results are published, the device studied may have already become outdated and replaced by a new model with different specifications and performances.

These research results remind people to maintain a certain degree of skepticism when using wearable devices. The publicity of manufacturers may exaggerate the measurement accuracy of the device, and there may be large errors in actual use.

TapTechNews noticed that in order to improve the accuracy of wearable devices, researchers called for the establishment of a cooperative network to promote cooperation among all parties such as academia, industry, and the media, and to promote the standardization of device verification and the unification of methods. Currently, some efforts are already underway to establish such a collaborative network.