Fitness is the need of the hour and many of us have invested in a smartwatch or fitness band within the past few months to track our activity or monitor our workout sessions. However, when we use the fitness trackers to track our walk inside a building or at an altitude, they are far from accurate in giving us the exact GPS measurement.
This is because of the absence of barometer measurements in most of the smartwatches. If your training involves a lot of movement on higher altitudes or simply if you wish to navigate to your favorite store in a multi-story shopping mall, you will need to invest in a higher-end model of the smartwatch or specifically select one that has barometric measurement as one of its features.
If you are looking for a classic, elegant, and yet technologically advanced watch; check out the Huawei fitness watch GT2. With its classy glass face, its monitoring system measures your activity with accuracy both outdoors and indoors. The high performance of the watch is further elevated by its extended battery life and easy management of everyday activities like answering calls and replying to texts. With the smartwatch, Huawei has added another intelligent product to its portfolio and continues to bring digital innovations to the world.
How does a barometric altimeter work?
The smartwatches containing features such as a barometric altimeter measures your uphill or downhill activities by taking into account the atmospheric pressure during your movement. Therefore:
- When the barometer pressure reading starts decreasing, it takes as an uphill movement or even going up the stairs.
- When the pressure moves up, it is considered as a downward movement.
While barometric altimeter is quite accurate in its reading, you might need to do some manual setup initially because you cannot rely on Google data or GPS tracker to work efficiently especially when you are at a higher altitude or when you are inside a large building.
Pros and cons of using barometric altimeter instead of GPS
While GPS measures both vertical as well as horizontal movements, the data accuracy is highly questionable at higher altitudes and enclosed buildings. Since the barometer works on the concept of change in pressure; it is much more reliable for measuring exact vertical movements.
The only limitation to this type of measurement based on atmospheric pressure is that you can only measure vertical movements while horizontal movements are not taken into consideration because of the lack of change in the pressure conditions in the surrounding atmosphere.
Even many smartphones apart from watches have either built-in barometers or have apps that can do the same for you. This can help in:
- Easy indoor navigation in multi-story office buildings or large shopping complexes especially when you are trying to navigate different floors of the building.
- Giving a more accurate estimate of calories burnt when doing uphill activities such as walking, running, or trekking at higher altitudes.
- Providing more accurate weather mapping by measuring pressure changes in the atmosphere.
Many famous brands are sporting barometric sensors in their digital equipment which can enhance the accuracy of your performance measurement to a much higher degree.
