The tissue underlying skin mounted accelerometers
introduces errors to the data they collect [1]. As a
consequence various data correction attempts have been
made to minimise the effect of local tissue-accelerometer
vibration [1,2]. However, accelerometers are not always
mounted directly onto the skin. It is often impractical to do
so for studies that measure activities during day-to-day
living where strap mounting may be a more common
attachment method. Therefore an understanding of the
response of strap mounted accelerometers is also necessary.
As the straps surround irregular shaped body segments strap
mounted accelerometers may suffer from poor coupling
when compared to skin mounted accelerometers, as well as
additional vibration of the strap and pre-loading effects of
tissue due to strap tension. This can be especially prevalent
for straps around the waist, mounting accelerometers to
measure motion at the spine. The aim of this study was to
investigate whether the damped frequency (fd) and the
logarithmic decrement (δ) of the local system
(accelerometer, strap and local tissue) can be estimated so
that the Smeathers’ method of data correction [2] can be
applied to strap mounted accelerometers at the lumbar spine
