Android Sensors and Unique ways to use it.

Android Sensors and Unique ways to use it.

Hey everyone,

               I'm back with a really cool and exciting topic which is what are the sensors available in smart phones(Mainly Android, Sorry Apple fans lol)? and how you can use this sensors in a really cool way..! 
The sensors which are available in smart phones are Proximity, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Camera, Light , Temperature and Barometer. Now, without wasting time just jump into knowing how cool you can use these sensors.
NOTE: Click on the highlighted blue words to open apps and links.

Now there is an App called Sensor box using this app you can check what all sensors your mobile have.

1.Proximity Sensor

        

This sensor basically detects anything that gets close enough to the front of your android device. It does this by emitting an IR(Infrared) beam and detects changes in the return signal. It is commonly used to turn the screen off during calls to save battery life and to prevent accidental screen touches from the cheek.

Cool application:

•  You can use proximity sensor in a unique way by using an app called Wave Control. This app allows you to control media playback on your device just by waving your hand near your phone.  
• Another really great use of the proximity sensor is made by an app called Kin Screen which allows you to lock and wake up your phone simply by using proximity sensor to judge when it is in your pocket and when it is not. 

kin screen

Wave control

2.Magnetometer

 The magnetometer is a really fun sensor which most of us probably don't realize exist in our phones that's probably because it is not as prominent as the proximity sensor and its applications are not as widely used as proximity sensor nor observed much either. 

It is used to detect the magnetic field around the phone, detects changes in the field and even quantify the intensity of the magnetic field near the device. You can use an app called Metal Sniffer(Metal Detector).(If a magnet or a metal is bought close to the device it detects and measures the Electro-magnetic field).

Metal Sniffer

Cool application:

 One great use of  magnetometer is made by Google Cardboard. You must have noticed that picking the magnet on cardboard acts as a trigger for clicking on things at virtual reality. Ever wondered how that works? Well it detects the change in magnetic field and gets the app to trigger a function accordingly.

3. Accelerometer

The accelrometer majors and keeps the track of the orientation of the device. For example check out this app called the Pocket Bubble Level which uses the accelerometer to figure out the orientation of the device. When you tilt your phone the bubble in the app responds accordingly however, it does not measure the rotation of the device.

Cool application:

One great use of accelrometer is made in android 7.1 where you can simply raise your device to wake the screen this is also a feature in IOS 10. 
Since this is sensor dependent you can get this feature in all phones as well there is an app called Smart Wake which gives you raised to wake functionality on a phone running an older version of android its really cool and the feature itself is quite handy.

smart wake

Pocket Bubble Level

4.Gyroscope

This sensor helps you to keep track of how the device is being rotated. If the phone is kept upright and rotated the accelerometer does not detect any changes as the device is still in same orientation. However the gyroscope will be able to do that by keeping track of how the phone is rotated and to what extent.

This property of the gyroscope is what used in VR(Virtual reality) apps such as google cardboard and the 360 degree videos on YouTube.

Cool application:

 There  are a lot of great games possible thanks to the gyroscope sensor. 
One such game is Minos Starfighter VR  it is a first person space shooter arcade game which uses your head movement to shoot another game similar to this is Cylops Duck Hunt this is a VR fun imagination game based on the classic duck hunt.

You can also use VR apps such as VR Cave, VR Roller Coaster etc., to get virtual reality expreience of cave and coaster. You should really check this all out.

Google Cardboard(used to view VR apps)

5.Camera

The camera itself is a sensor so yes, we are going to include it as well. The basic use of camera is that to detect light and use that to take a picture but it can also detect motion.

Cool Application:
 One app that does this(detecting motion) and does it really well is Motion Detector Pro so if you have some old android phones lying in your home you can use this app to turn it into a rudimentary security camera. The app works by using the camera feed to detect movement when it does it clicks the picture and then emails you(Pretty cool huh?).

Motion detector

There are some other sensors which are mostly self explanatory so I'm just summing them up.

6.Light sensor

This sensor is responsible for measuring the intensity of light falling on the device display. Your device use this to control automatic brightness.

7.Temperature sensor

This sensor senses the temperature inside and around the android device and can also be used to measure room temperature using apps like Ambient Temperature.

8.Barometer

 It is very useful sensor which is used to measure the air pressure being exerted on the device there are apps which is used to figure out the altitude at which the phone is placed. 
One such app is the Barometer & Altimeter.

Barometer

Fact Flash:

Google's self driving cars carry around $30,000 of high-tech hardware and sensors but Students at Australia's Griffith University Reckon got the job done with a single smartphone. Rather than using LIDAR sensors and stack of cameras, the students have built a prototype that relies mainly on phone's camera and GPS.(Awesome right?)

Youtube link

Therefore the sensors in android aren't just for a specific purpose.They can be used in various ways than you can imagine. I have shared the ways in which I know how cool these sensors can be and used. If you have better Ideas leave a comment.

I guess this blog was helpful in understanding the sensors of android device and their apps. If you have any doubts regarding the concepts explained feel free to leave a comment..!

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