Enhancing Exercise Monitoring and Guidance Through Mobile Augmented Reality: A Comparative Study of RGB and LiDAR

Augmented Reality (AR) technology for motion tracking is often used on mobile devices with an RGB front camera or LiDAR sensor rear camera. While there are various AR applications for exercise, there is a lack of comparative studies investigating the specific effects of these technologies on the AR exercise experience. This study evaluated the performance and usability of using the RGB camera and the LiDAR sensor for exercise monitoring with a mobile AR application. We examined their performance in different environmental room conditions: a solid wall, a glass wall, and a wall with objects. Focusing on a marching-in-place use case, we assessed accuracy and usability across participants with varying body mass index (BMI). Our application provided display and audio notifications for correct posture compared with validation by an expert physical therapist. The results indicated that differences in BMI did not significantly affect accuracy. Algorithm 1. The LiDAR provided higher accuracy in various environments, while the RGB camera provided higher scores in usability. The results suggested that standing position affected the detection both RGB and LiDAR cameras had better accuracy when standing at a 45-degree angle than directly facing the camera. This study showed the potential of both technologies for telehealth scenarios, emphasizing the significance of practical usage in households and ease of use to support exercise monitoring and empower users to achieve fitness goals and telehealth.