MOBILE SENSORS BY OLIVIA TUFFS-MOULDS

ACCELEROMETER An accelerometer is a device, hidden in the motherboard of a smartphone, is a sensor which detects the amount of acceleration (or G-force).

GYROSCOPE Unlike a accelerometer, gyroscopes detect the orientation in which a phone is at. As you tilt your phone, the screen will rotate if the correct settings are applied. This is the job of the gyroscope and that is what makes it tilt. Thanks to this particular sensor, in some devices (such as Android mobiles) it can store the data about how much a phone has been rotated and in which direction.

PEDOMETER AND HEART RATE MONITORS Heart rate monitors and pedometers are rarely found built-in to a mobile device, as they are available to buy in app stores but they still use sensors to work. Heart rate monitors generally come in two types — either a wireless chest strap that sends data to a monitor worn on the wrist, or pulse monitor worn on the wrist that requires you to put your finger on a certain spot to take your pulse. Both provide real-time input on how hard and how efficiently you are exercising Pedometers measure how many steps you take. Every time you walk, your body tilts to one side and you swing a leg forward. Then your body tilts the other way and you swing the other leg forward too. Each tilt of the hips and shift of the legs is a step. Assuming each step is pretty much the same length, all we need to do is count the number of steps we make in a day, by counting the number of times our body tilts from side to side. We can then multiply the number of steps by the length of each one to figure out the overall distance walked. That is how pedometers work.

COMPASS In a mobile phone, a compass is an in-app device which measures the navigation and orientation relative to cardinal directions or “points”. When the compass is used, the rose can aligned with the corresponding geographical directions so the “N” mark on the rose represents north. North corresponds to zero degrees, and the angles increase clockwise, so east is 90 degrees, south is 180, and west is 270.

BAROMETER A barometer is a scientific instrument typically used to measure atmospheric pressure. The rise and fall in pressure can determine the weather forecast and when kept stationary can measure subtle pressure changes.

FINGERPRINT SENSOR The fingerprint sensor, also known as a “grove sensor” is the sensor, mainly found in new mobile devices rather than the older ones. On the new iPhone, the home button has been replaced with this sensor in order to allow easier access.