Stride Length Using Steps and GPS

[ColonelBadger]

Rather than attempting to calculate the users stride length via height etc, or have them manually work out stride length why not have the app use the GPS to work out distance and the step count from fitbit to accurately calculate stride length?

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity and labels.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Thank you so much for sharing your ideas with us @ColonelBadger!

This is a really smart suggestion, however the only inconvenient I see here is for people that don't use the App and only sync using their computers. Since only the Fitbit Surge has the GPS integrated feature, I don't see this will be an option for this type of users, however, I'll pass your suggestion along to be evaluated and maybe have it implemented in the future. Once again, thanks for sharing your request!

[Monkeywrench]

I'm sure I'm not the first to mention this: The Surge knows both my step count and the distance when I log activities for running, hiking, and walking. Given this, it would seem trivially easy to very accurately calculate my step length for each of these activities to be used to calculate an accurate distance whenever the GPS is not used.

[VladB]

This is not really easy in case of the Surge. GPS is not reliable from accuracy stand point. You may get 20-25% difference some times. I walked recently 2.88 miles according to google maps, but the surge showed 3.5 miles, which seems like not acceptable deviation. It all gets to the cost of the battary life and CPU performance, so that I am not sure it is easy to fix.

It would be great if Fitbit could use GPS from the phone - IT WOULD BE AWESOME, in this case accuracy would be MUCH MUCH better!

[RichardCollins]

I use a Fitbit Charge which does not have GPS.  They use a table or formula to estimate your stride from combinations of sex, age, height, weight, speed.  Any formula is based on populations studies that measure stride for groups of people and relate that stride to these parameters.  Fitbit should publish its formula (if it is on the site I can't find it).

If you google "stride length calculator based on height weight age sex speed",  you will find some interesting notes on this topic.  If you google "site:fitbit.com stride length" you will get most of the references to it on Fitbit.  Fitbits internal searches are too biased.

If you walk a measured distance and count your steps, you can calculate you average stride and use that.  I also walked through a mud puddle several times at my normal pace and measured heel to heel.  My measured stride was almost exactly the same as what Fitbit uses.  Since the Dashboard does not allow decimal inches (it only takes whole inches), you cannot enter an accurate measured stride anyway. 

[Crunchyfroglegs]

I'd love the application of a one time, or selectable Calibration Mode. A one time, or editable tile (accessible via the app, no need wasting space/processing on the watch itself) that just says "Calibrating: Please walk for 10 minutes." "Calibrating: Please run for 10 minutes". The site takes those two "workouts" and does the very easy math.

Job. Done.

[ChuckT_2]

This is a worthy idea. I have noticed the dustance difference between GPS (I have 2 hand-helds), my Charge HR, and my Cellphone GPS app (I have settled on Gaia.). I'd certainly be interested in one that could be calibrated.

[BobbyG37]

I agree!  Whenever I run on a treadmill my surge massively underestimates my distance relative to my steps.  A calibration feature would be fantastic!

[twschmidt]

I would just like to say that i completely agree. This would be the easiest way to fine tune stride length, and would automatically adjust over time as you get in shape and take longer strides.  

[davidkmcw]

I like to be  ablt to put the mobile app into some kind of 'learning' mode, which would have it connect to your smartphone's GPS so it can calculate stride length for running and walking...

[Daniel_E]

Awesome idea. I have a fitbit Charge HR and have found that my regular 3.2mile walk (per GPS) was only being logged as 3.2km when I used the stopwatch/activity function on the watch. I manually had to calculate my stride length. It seems that if you use the phone app to track an activity using GPS and you tell the app what activity you are doing, the app could automatically adjust/calibrate stride length for running and walking for you.

[MakMak]

Now that Blaze is here, this could be done with Blaze, also. Both Surge and Blaze could have this feature!

[SunsetRunner]

This is really needed. I should be able to calibrate by simply using a Surge- or Mobile Run, or Connected GPS.....

The  calibrated stride length should be loaded back to the cloud and used for any other device.

You can keep manual stride enrty as an option for people that don't use GPS.

The user that syncs via desktop is also OK! You just need ~20 minutes of GPS tracked activity to guage stride length. The user can sync however they want.

Btw- the AW and MS Band use GPS calibration... 

[mighty-mouse]

i am an android user, and thought this would be a great feature. to allow you to start and stop a function, that syncs current steps, and distance, then again 1 mile later, and provides you a suggenstion to change your stride setting.  It would be acceptable if we had to stop before and after the distance for a bit to allow for better sync information. I know i can do the same thing by recording the steps on the fit bit, and distance on the app, or a different 3rd party app,  then do the math.   However over time as fitness improves, or injuries happen, our stride changes, and its just reasonable that the app, offers this tuning feature.

I hope you consider, adding this very valuable feature.

note: on android the fitbit "track your exercise" app consumes a great deal more battery than some of the 3rd party  "jog tracker" apps, can you look at this ?

[GonzoCubFan]

Great idea that I agree with.  Having done a bunch HID, I have a suggestions as to where this could easily go.  When you track a walk or a run using your GPS, the "exercise" screen for that activity shows a GPS trace of your route on a map.  It would be trivial to add a button (or buttons) on this screen (in either the app or the Web interface) that lets you set your stride based upon the distance and # of steps for either your walikng or running stride.  Easy-peazy

 = Ed =

[gizmo001i]

Hi, would it be possible to add an algorithm within the Fitbit Surge or within the Fitbit app that would calculate the average stride length for a person either running or walking using the gps information gathered during a session. I would think that it is a fairly simple thing to work out over a period of time what a persons stride length was, using steps taking and distance covered. Thereby allowing the Surge to automatically work out a persons average stride length to a much more accurate level than having a person try and work out what it is manually.

[SunsetRunner]

why adding an already existing feature ?

do a walk/a run

start and stop GPS

take the number of steps

divide distance by steps

record stride length

too difficult ?

[gizmo001i]

No not too difficult at all. What I stated above is that it could be used to calculate the average stride length over a period of time (ie over many sessions). That way the calculated length would be much more accurate as a persons stride length does change slightly from session to session.

Understand ?

[postatoe]

It has now been implemented on the Blaze : please add it for the Surge 🙂

[DerrickS]

Hi everybody, just wanted to give everybody an update that this feature currently exists for Blaze users. If Blaze users go for one or more runs using Connected GPS, the data will be used to automatically determine and update you stride length. Click here for more details.

Since this feature has only been implemented for Blaze, I'm going to leave this feature request open to represent interest in seeing it implemented for other devices.

Thanks for posting your ideas!

[Turisas]

I think that  can be a good idea if the Stride calibration would perform using gps and accelerometer data about after n-days to take a differential Stride calibration using a gps track and accelerometer correlation. if the cross correlation of a n-times measure and the standard deviation of the measurement is under a determined value the stride calibration will shift for a longer period (about once a week  of more for 5minutes).

i thinks that a closed loop stride calibration could solve most user and can give back to developer a error distribution diagram for all the devices and determine a fault trend to give pre-emptive correction.

[Neefer]

I was just coming here to post a similar request for an "auto setup mode" -- where you do something specific to enable it (push the button 3 times fast, spin in a circle, touch your toes then wave your hands in the air)... and it tells you "take 50 steps at your normal walking pace, then press the button when complete".... "now run for 20 steps and press the button when complete", etc. etc. etc. to collect the necessary data to auto-calculate stride length, and whatever else it can figure out automatically via accelerometer, known set number of steps taken, time, distance, etc.

[Bill606]

Modify the Charge HR App to allow a used defined stride distance to get a correct milage for steps taken.

[Peter_S]

I think you can already adjust your stride length in the Charge HR Fitbit App.  This thread was for allowing data gathered during a walk to (steps, and distance by GPS) to automatically update stride length for non GPS tracked activity.

would be a useful feature but Surge seems to be the forgotten device.

Peter

[erik_the_red]

My approach for calibrating stride length is: Go for a walk while tracking distance with GPS, and counting steps on my Fitbit. Then I simply calculate the stride length from the distance and number of steps. I believe this gives me a good average to work with.

I was thinking that it should be possible for this approach to be automated in the Fitbit app. Maybe it could be an option whenever you track a walk or run with the built in GPS tracking to use the data from that workout as a basis for calculating stride length?

I think this could be a neat addition to help people get more accurate stride lengths

Moderator edit: Labels

[SunsetRunner]

It's possible to automatically adjust the stride length when having the Fitbit Blaze.

From the Fitbit Article:

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1135

Fitbit trackers calculate distance by multiplying your walking steps by your walking stride length and multiplying your running steps by your running stride length. By default, we calculate your stride length using your height and gender. If you have a Fitbit Blaze™ and track one or more runs using connected GPS, we evaluate that data to automatically update your running stride length.