What is Pedometer?

What is Pedometer?

With wearable devices being the rage these days, all you can see is Smart this Smart that.
if you happen to see the specifications of these devices you can come across the word "Pedometer".

Omron HJ112 Digital Pedometer

Today smartphones also come equipped with Pedometers (*cough* Nexus 5).

This is a sensor which measures the distance travelled or the number of steps taken.

So, how does it do that?
Whenever we walk or jog the body undergoes vibrations.
To detect these body vibrations Sensors were made use of.
Traditional ones made use of a mechanical switch coupled with counter to detect steps.
Recent ones make use of Gyrosensor modules or accelerometers or other MEMS sensors coupled with a nifty software to do the trick.
There are other various other mechanical techniques which can detect motion, but they are all prbably obsolete by now.

Accuracy depends on the device. A pedometer is pretty accurate on a flat surface.
There are GPS pedometers which accurately pin point your location and distance travelled (as long as your not blocked by tall buildings!!).

Courtesy: (Image) Wiki