experiment with Pedometer++ app

[Louis Swaim]

Greetings,

I recently downloaded a free app for my iPhone called Pedometer++. The iPhone 5s has an extra chip in it called M7 that senses and records the user's movements throughout the day, and there are a number of fitness apps designed to work in conjunction with that functionality. Pedometer++ records your steps, and keeps a running daily total for weekly cycles. I really like to walk, so it's fun to keep track of how much walking and hiking I do from day to day.

In the spirit of a true taijiquan experimenter, I've been field testing Pedometer++ while I do my form. Here's the funny thing, though: I record the step total before and after my form, and the total steps recorded for each round is. . . zero. The M7 motion co-processor uses a combination of accelerometers, compasses, gps, and gyroscopes, and can supposedly tell when you're walking or driving. Evidently, the Pedometer++ program can tell when I'm walking, but taijiquan steps and weight shifts are qualitatively different enough from actual walking that it doesn't even record them! I've taken careful readings, and it records the thirty or so steps from my side door out to the deck in my back yard where I practice. But once I start my form, it doesn't even register a step. Fascinating!

So this makes me think, someone should develop an app specifically for recording taijiquan movement. It may require some sort of ancillary device that one would wear on a wrist or ankle. Hey, it could even register and chart heart rate, breathing and other indicators. That would be a fun thing to experiment with.

Take care,
Louis

[Bob Ashmore]

I've long believed that we do not "step" in the traditionally thought of way in TCC; we hold our center on one leg, then extend the opposite leg and shift our body weight over to it until our center is held there.
Repeat.

This is pretty cool information.
Thanks for posting it.

Bob