Walking Pace Induction Application Based on the BPM and RhythmValue of Music

Walking has been attracting attention as an important means for prevention and improvement of lifestyle diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. However, walking at a continuous pace with high load can be challenging, and health benefits cannot be expected when walking with low load. A walking pace support system is necessary in order to achieve effective walking. Hence, we are developing BeatSync, a smartphone application that realizes the induction of a natural and accurate walking pace by the rhythm of music. This application can select songs from a user’s music library. However, some songs, such as songs with a fast (slow) rhythm or complex beats, are not suitable for walking pace induction. In the present paper, we consider the speed and clarity of music rhythm to be an important factor in selecting a song that is suitable for walking pace induction and make an index and clarify its effect on walking pace induction. In the present study, BPM is used as an index of rhythm speed, and RhythmValue (RV) is proposed as an index of rhythm clarity. In order to verify the effectiveness of the index, we conducted walking pace induction experiments using 30 songs with different speeds and clarities (two sets of 15 songs) with 14 participants. As a result, the experiments confirmed that the proposed index can distinguish songs that are suitable or unsuitable for walking pace induction and can select songs that are suitable for walking pace induction.