Besides measuring heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and tracking steps, modern-day smartwatches can also detect if a person is sitting or standing. You may have already noticed that your smartwatch alerts you if you keep sitting for a long. And actively prompts you to move or take a walk. In this article, we will find out how does your smartwatch know whether you are standing or sitting and its relevance.
How Does Your Smartwatch Know if You are Standing or Sitting?
Most smartwatches use the accelerometer sensor to check for your hand movements. When you sit for longer, your hand will not incur any movement. Whereas while standing, your hand may record active movement along with steps.
The accelerometer sensor checks for multi-directional movements of the wrist. When it detects no movement registered for a specified time, the smartwatch alerts with a notification to stand up and move around.
For instance, the Apple Watch uses an accelerometer sensor and a gyroscope sensor to record the movements. It checks for hand movement from sitting to standing and a minute’s walk to detect and record that you are standing. The Apple Watch has a dedicated standing tracking feature that enables you to get notifications for standing.
How to Check if Your Smartwatch Has Idle Detection or Sedentary Reminders?
Your smartwatch may or may not have the standing tracking feature. You can check it manually from settings, as in some smartwatches; you can enable this feature manually.
Another way to find it is to check for the sedentary reminder feature on your smartwatch or its companion app on your phone. If the sedentary reminder is available, your watch can detect whether you are standing.
Alternatively, you can test it by sitting for about 30 minutes to 1 hour and see if the watch sends any reminder to stand up and take a walk. You will get this alert only if the smartwatch supports this feature or if you have enabled the sedentary reminder.
What’s the Benefit of Sedentary Reminders?
There are several benefits of having a smartwatch that can detect whether you are standing. One of the main benefits is health-related. If your smartwatch alerts you to walk, it can benefit your health.
If you sit for long hours because of study or any work, the reminder to move can help you to stay active and fit. A person should at least walk 5000 steps daily for a healthy body, which is necessary for inactive people. For active people, you should take at least 7500-10000 steps a day to keep your body fit.
Therefore, the standing tracking feature or sedentary reminder can help you to stay healthy and fit and keep your body active throughout the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How Does a Smartwatch Detect Movement?
Smartwatches use an accelerometer sensor to detect your body movements. Some expensive smartwatches like Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch also use other sensors like a gyroscope for better accuracy.
Q. Does Standing Count as Being Active?
Standing does not count as being active unless you take a walk and get some steps recorded. If you sit for too long, you should stand up and take frequent breaks to keep your body active.
Q. What Does Standing Mean on Apple Watch?
The Apple Watch standing tracking feature records how long you have been standing and moving for at least a minute throughout the day.
Q. Why Does Your Watch Remind You to Stand When You Are Already Standing?
If you are standing still, your smartwatch reminds you to stand, possibly because of the manual sedentary reminder settings. When you enable the sedentary reminder on your watch with a specific time frequency, it will send the reminder in selected intervals, which means it’s working on a software basis.
Q. Can a Smartwatch Detect That You Are Sitting or Resting?
Yes, smartwatches have different motion sensors, like the accelerometer that detects your hand movements. If you are sitting and there are no movements or shakes happening on your hand, it will detect it as you are either sitting/resting or going to sleep. Here’s more on how a sleeping tracking on a smartwatch.
Wrapping Up
This was everything about how a smartwatch knows whether you are standing or sitting. We discussed its working in smartwatches, its benefits, and how you can check whether this feature is available or not on your smartwatch. Share your thoughts on this smartwatch feature in the comments below, and stay tuned with WearablesToUse for more informative articles!
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