Accelerometer - Movement pattern recognition (iphone)

AI Thread Summary
The discussion focuses on recognizing physical movements using an iPhone's accelerometer, particularly for urban street behavior related to traffic lights. The goal is to differentiate actions like walking, stopping, turning, and sitting, with a specific interest in detecting when a pedestrian stops at a red light and crosses on green. A heuristic approach is proposed, utilizing FFT on the gravity direction signal for walking and measuring energy levels to determine stopping. However, challenges arise in distinguishing between activities like stair climbing and walking, and the limitations of not having a gyroscope for turning detection are noted. The thread highlights the need for clarity on the gravity direction signal from a 3-axis accelerometer for effective analysis.
reesefrancis
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hi, I have to find the best approach for tackling a problem for trying to recognize physical movements - with an iPhone in a pocket - like walking, stopping, turning left/right, sitting.

The ultimate goal is to recognize urban street behaviour, mostly regarding traffic lights: is it possible to tell when a pedestrian stops at a red light and then goes across the road on a green light? Or the data from an accelerometer won't be different when walking in a park etc.

I was thinking on just heuristically find the data corresponding to each action, then to check the incoming values against this data (with a threshold) and see what's happening. That's a very rough approach, of course, but unfortunately I don't have time to set up Support Vector Machine method for recognizing my patterns.

Here's what I got:
Walking: Do an fft on the gravity direction signal. Measure its frequency response for walking at different speeds and then set a simple threshold.

Stopping: if the average power i.e. total energy in the signal over the last few seconds drops below a certain threshold then you can say the user has stopped.

Turning left/right: not possible without a gyroscope.

Sitting: with no idea here - except for collecting data when sitting up from standing up and viceversa.

Stair climbing: basically the data I get when I climb stairs isn't different from the one I get when walking. Or is it there some way to tell the difference?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Is this the wrong section? hope not
 
I'll try with more specific questions:

which is the gravity direction signal of 3-axis accelerometer? I need to do an fft on it
 
I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
Thread 'Collision of a bullet on a rod-string system: query'
In this question, I have a question. I am NOT trying to solve it, but it is just a conceptual question. Consider the point on the rod, which connects the string and the rod. My question: just before and after the collision, is ANGULAR momentum CONSERVED about this point? Lets call the point which connects the string and rod as P. Why am I asking this? : it is clear from the scenario that the point of concern, which connects the string and the rod, moves in a circular path due to the string...
Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'
Let's declare that for the cylinder, mass = M = 10 kg Radius = R = 4 m For the wall and the floor, Friction coeff = ##\mu## = 0.5 For the hanging mass, mass = m = 11 kg First, we divide the force according to their respective plane (x and y thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and according to which, cylinder or the hanging mass, they're working on. Force on the hanging mass $$mg - T = ma$$ Force(Cylinder) on y $$N_f + f_w - Mg = 0$$ Force(Cylinder) on x $$T + f_f - N_w = Ma$$ There's also...
Back
Top