Human Activity Recognition from Accelerometry, Based on a Radius of Curvature Feature

Abstract

Physical activity recognition using accelerometry is a rapidly advancing field with significant implications for healthcare, sports science, and wearable technology. This research presents an interesting approach for classifying physical activities using solely accelerometry data, signals that were taken from the available “MHEALTH dataset” and processed through artificial neural networks (ANNs). The methodology involves data acquisition, preprocessing, feature extraction, and the application of deep learning algorithms to accurately identify activity patterns. A major innovation in this study is the incorporation of a new feature derived from the radius of curvature. This time-domain feature is computed by segmenting accelerometry signals into windows, conducting double integration to derive positional data, and subsequently estimating a circumference based on the positional data obtained within each window. This characteristic is computed across the three movement planes, providing a robust and comprehensive feature for activity classification. The integration of the radius of curvature into the ANN models significantly enhances their accuracy, achieving over 95%. In comparison with other methodologies, our proposed approach, which utilizes a feedforward neural network (FFNN), demonstrates superior performance. This outperforms previous methods such as logistic regression, which achieved 93%, KNN models with 90%, and the InceptTime model with 88%. The findings demonstrate the potential of this model to improve the precision and reliability of physical activity recognition in wearable health monitoring systems.