Estimating Carrier’s Height by Accelerometer Signals of a Smartphone

The aim of this study is to estimate height of a carrier (owner) of a smartphone by using single three-axis accelerometer signals. We found that the accelerometer signals collected while a carrier goes up the stairs contain features that are correlated with height of the carrier as high as \(r = 0.801\). Apart from potentially useful applications of the result, there might arise a privacy issue in using smartphone since approximate height could be acquired in this way. Although, in general, height is not regarded as private information to be worried about, if someone thinks his/her height belongs to privacy, it should be protected against leakage.