Real-Time Evaluation of Repetitive Physical Exercise Using Orientation Estimation from Inertial and Magnetic Sensors

Human motion tracking has an important role in a wide variety of applications, including physical exercise. Exercise tracking systems based on the combined use of inertial and magnetic sensors (also called IMU systems) have witnessed a fast increase in popularity in recent years due to their high accuracy and portability. Nonetheless, a complete solution that would guide a user in correctly performing a movement and provide a real-time evaluation of the performed movement is still not available. This paper presents an IMU based system for human motion tracking and its application in real-time evaluation of repetitive physical exercise. The user is provided with a visual demonstration of the correct exercise execution and his own movements. An algorithm is used to compare the movements, thus enabling quantitative and qualitative exercise assessment. However, only simple exercises (that include one limb motion) have been tested with this system, and evaluation of more complex movements shall be explored in the future.