Does the Blaze learn

[fabravo]

I purchased a Blaze on Monday and have been running parallel with my One (two separate syncing accounts on Fitbit.com) since then. I'm trying it out to see if I like it and how accurate it is. I've read a lot about how the Blaze counts (or doesn't, in most cases) steps, which concerns me.

The first day the step count was way off, but I was messing with how I was wearing it so didn't think much of it. Day 2 it was 1,300 under; day 3 it was 630 under; and, yesterday about 400 under. Today, it's amost right on as of right now, under by about 60 steps (total steps so far over 3,000 so it's a pretty good sample size).

As far as I can tell, I've not done anyting different any of the full days I've worn it, so I have to ask: Does the Fitbit Blaze learn how you walk and gets better at counting steps as you wear it?

Logically, I think I'm crazy, but I have no other answer to why each day it is getting closer to the "correct" step count, as identified by my One.

As an aside, the Blaze is not tied to my phone so it's not getting any GPS help.

Thoughts?

[WendyB]

No it doesnt learn. But if its gotten better and closer thats a good thing.

I got better results when I changed the settings. I wear it on my  Dominate arm but I have it selected to Non-Dominate under settings.

As for the GPS it needs to be connected to your phone if you want to use GPS.

[fabravo]

Better and closer is a good thing, but better and closer for no good reason is not.

I have 60 (now 55) days to decide if I like it or not/trust it enough or not before I can't return it. At this point, I'm leaning toward it going back.

[Rich_Laue]

Better and closer, can depend on many different things, mostly the type of activity through out the day being done. You might think the day to day activity is simaler... The longer the walks, the closer the two should agree. 

I suggest experimenting with the dominant arm setting, this can have a big affect on the accuracy.

Lets look at this closer. 

• The One is mounted on the body core, the Blaze is on the arm.
• The One monitors body core motions, while the Blaze monitors arm motions.
• Both look for motions of the respective monitoring point that resembles what should be seen while walking.
• Neither unit is goung to be 100% correct for normal throughout the day activity, the movements are just not predictably enough.
• On a walk or run, the accuracy of both types are very close, this is simply because the body and arms are in your walking/running rhythm. 
• Walk across a plush carpet or moss covered field, the One may miss steps, where the Blaze wouldn't. 
• Carry something heavy in the arms, the Blaze might miss steps, while depending on how heavy, so might the One.
• Tap your foot, the One might add steps, clap your hands, the Blaze might.

So what is a person to do?

• What i did was friend the two accounts, 
• I can then monitor the 7 Day Leaderboard. 
• I noticed that almost daily, sometimes with every sync, the two trackers where switching possitions. This tells me that overall the counts are close.
• Tried a month with non-Dominant and a month wih Dominant, you might want to try a week with each setting.
• Then 3 months with the setting that look best compared to the One
• I also used IFTTT to dump the data into a Google Sheet. This allowed me to easily graph and monitor te data side by side.

While i noticed that individual days the data between the two where inconsistent but close, the weekly, and monthly totals where extreamly close. Two months the totals where within a 100 step count over about 240,000 steps.

After monitoring the One versus arm unit for 5 months i switched the arm unit to my main account, the One to the secondary and continued to monitor for a few more months.

So why are arm based units so popular?

Convenience it stays on the arm, not the clothing

Easier to look at, not having to remove it from the waist band/underwear/bra

Can offer more features, heartrate, notifacations 

Fitbit uses their proprietary algorhythms, some of which is to look for 5 consecutive steps before deciding that the user is walking. IE: take 4 steps stop, none counted. Take 7 steps, 7 steps are added.

Yes i have been wordy, monitoring steps by looking at arm movements  does require more logic added than monitoring the body core movements. I have found Fitbit does a very good job at this. Through the upgrades to the Charge and Charge HR this has only been fine tuned and getting more accurate . I expect with each upgrade to the Blaze the same will also happen.

[fabravo · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the info. After two more days with it being way off (more than 1,000 each day), I'm calling it. I had hopped to give it a few weeks, but it's way too expensive to be that far off from my One. 

[Rich_Laue]

I hope you realize rhere are periods during the day that your one will also give false steps, or miss some.

As i stated the Blaze looks at arm motions, not your legs. Personally i think it does pretty good at filtering out steps. I do find that over the 7 days the two stay close. I do not expect them to agree over the course of the day, they use different ways of monitoring the activity.

During my walks/runs the 2 units are within 2%.

Was the Blaze always over or under?

The decision is yours to make.