![]() ![]() These optical sensors are less effective than bioimpedance as a gauge of your overall health but can be more useful if you want to check your heart rate as you exercise or work out. Other wearables, such as the Fitbit Charge 2, use optical sensors to shine a light on your skin and measure your pulse through it: the light illuminates your capillaries, then a sensor measures the rate at which your blood is being pumped (and thus your heart rate). Bioimpedance sensors check the resistance of your skin to a tiny electric current, and the four electrodes on the inside of the UP3 fitness tracker are clearly visible. While the future of Jawbone is up in the air, its seasoned UP3 is still one of the most sensor-packed trackers, squeezing in temperature sensors and a bioimpedance sensor alongside the familiar accelerometer we've already mentioned. Have a dive into the specs list of a particular tracker to see what sensors are included to collect data about you. These sensors measure the acceleration, frequency, duration, intensity and patterns of your movement-taken together that's a good bunch of data and it can help a tracker work out if you're walking down the road or just waving at someone you know. All of this information is collected and crunched to create an overall reading, and the more sensors your tracker has, the more accurate its data. Then there's the altimeter that can measure your altitude, handy for working out the heigh of the mountains you've climbed or the number of flights of stairs you've managed to get up and down during the day. The data collected is then converted into steps and activity and from their into calories and sleep quality, though there is some guesswork involved along the way. Simply speaking, fitness trackers measure motion: most of today's wearables come with a 3-axis accelerometer to track movement in every direction, and some come with a gyroscope too to measure orientation and rotation. Read on to peek behind the curtain and find out why fitness tracking isn't an exact science yet. Read this: Best waterproof fitness trackers Well, whether you've grabbed a new Fitbit or maybe something like the Garmin Vivosmart 3, we got down and dirty with the tech and spoke to some of the companies trying to make sense of the data. But how exactly does your fitness tracker come up with all the statistics that appear on the accompanying app? It sits quietly on your wrist: counting up your steps, tracking your sleep, monitoring your heart and calculating the difference between a light jog and a mad sprint. ![]()
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