A Self-developed Smart Wristband to Monitor Exercise Intensity and Safety in Physical Education Class

Abstract

School-based physical education in China is supposed to provide students opportunities to do moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Providing teachers with real-time feedback of students' physical activity may increase the effectiveness of PE class. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a smart wristband that can monitor students' exercise quantity and exercise intensity and evaluate the exercise intensity and safety in a PE lesson. Data was collected from 2 representative Chinese high schools. Students (101 males and 87 females) wore these self-developed smart wristbands during their physical education classes. Results were obtained by measuring heart rate and physical activity in real-time simultaneously. The research determined that smart wristbands could be adapted to monitoring exercise intensity and safety during PE lessons. It could also apply to measuring physical activity, exercise load, and heart rate of students in PE classes, but also evaluate the effectiveness of PE class and control exercise intensity. Moreover, the wristband can warn students whose heart rate is out of safe range to ensure the safety during exercise. Future studies should testify to the measuring accuracy of the smart wristband.