K-Sense: Towards a Kinematic Approach for Measuring Human Energy Expenditure

Accurate energy expenditure monitoring will be an essential part of medical diagnosis in the future, enabling individually-tailored just-in-time interventions. However, there are currently no real-time monitors that are practical for continuous daily use. In this paper, we introduce the K-Sense energy expenditure monitor that uses inertial measurement units (IMUs) mounted to an individual’s wrist and ankle with elastic bands to determine angular velocity and position. The system utilizes kinematics to determine the amount of energy required for each limb to achieve its current movement. Our empirical evaluation includes over 3,000,000 individual data samples across 12 individuals and the results indicate that the system can estimate total energy expenditure with a 92 percent accuracy on average.