I'm looking at building a smartphone app that will need to track the users limbs (say legs/feet) as accurately as possible. The goal is to trace the moments of body parts and the timing of the movements in relation to each other.
I'm more of a computer science guy than an electrical engineering guy and am not quite sure how to do it. How realistic it is.
There seems to be a similar question here: Sensor for hand/foot location in relation to a persons body
Is seems to make senses as far as distance is concerned but I need direction as well.
I was think accelerometers might be worth looking at but how accurate are they and do they need to be calibrated often? For example if the accelerometers were on a persons feet would they have to stand with their feet together to calibrate and then you would be able to work out new locations based on their movements from the calibrated position?
Bluetooth proximity sensors seem to only tell distance and not direction and don't look to be accurate enough.
Any ideas?
Best Answer
An accelerometer/Gyro sensor (Accelerometer for the static angle and gyro for the dynamic angular movement) would be great for such an application, however each limb will require one such node. ST and Freescale both have such sensors, often called 6D.