Can someone provide more information on how this is computed? Is it as simple as 1 step = 1 meter or something more sophisticated based on your historic GPS travel to steps?
I'm sure the folks from Garmin will chime in tomorrow with a better, more complete, answer, but I'll throw this out anyway. There is a device-specific setting in Garmin Connect that supposedly relates to this. If you go to connect.garmin.com, click the three horizontal line button on the left of the page, click Devices, click a device, click User Settings, then scroll to Custom Step Length.
In addition to that, some devices (the 630 at least) have a Stride Length data field which indicates the device is calculating stride length for activities. Devices with footpod support have a calibration factor to map your steps back to distance when the footpod is used for distance (GPS not available). I've got no idea if the data is in turn used for distance calculations for normal activity tracking or not, but given that it is there, I'd be surprised if it wasn't being used.
if you look at some of the apps that does TCX to Distance translations or mapping etc, you will notice that there is some calculation involved in between GPS distance and the number of steps taken to achieve those distance - 1km for instance)
The simple mechanism is just to use the GPS distance and divide by the steps to get the stride length.
Google up DCRainMaker and FootPod calibration. YOu will find what I'm referrig to. Unless of course, you're asking for something totally difference in which case, it woudl be helpful to be specific and clear.
I never saw an official answer on this one. I'd like to use the fenix3 for a 2 week long hike to get an idea of distance travelled. I'd like to know how accurate this is and if I can rely on it.
