Knowing your Smartphone Sensors

Hi Everyone. The gadgets are zooming past with classic features and paving way to their extinct. Just some time back, we were getting used to the word "Smartphone" and "Tablet" and now we don't seem to be getting over them. Lenovo, HP, Apple, Samsung and now even Google are pouncing in this industry to get more. Millions have it, Millions are waiting for it and Billions more are saving for it... So has the industry come to.

Keeping that aside, do we really understand the gadgets that we are so proud of buying?

Sensors are now not a luxury that they were sometime back. Gadgets literally are smart because of these sensors. You may soon find even a barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer (to measure humidity). The tremendous growth of sensor technology in Smartphone increases day by day and will experience fabulously over the next few years.

Ambient light Sensor (ALS): An ambient light sensor to portable devices such as tablets, smart phones, and laptops extends battery life and enables easy-to-view displays that are optimized to the environment.

Proximity Sensor: A proximity sensor is very much useful in Smartphone. It detects how close the screen of the phone is to your body. This allows the phone to sense when you have brought the phone up to your ear. At that point, the display turns off in order to save battery. It also stops detecting touches, as to avoid unwanted input, until you take the phone away from your ear.

Global Positioning System (GPS): GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. It’s a Navigation tracking, often with a map “picture” in the background, but showing where you have been, and allowing “routes” to be preprogrammed, giving a line you can follow on the screen of Smartphone

Accelerometer: The accelerometer allows the device of Smartphone to detect the orientation of the device and adapts the content to suit the new orientation. For example, when you rotate your device sideways, the Web browser automatically switches the screen to landscape mode so that you now have a wider viewing space. Similarly, the camera relies on the accelerometer to tell it whether you are taking a picture in portrait or landscape mode.

Gyroscope/ Gyro Sensor: A gyroscope can be used to either measure, or maintain, the orientation of a device. Unlike an accelerometer, which measures the linear acceleration of the device, a gyroscope measures the orientation directly. When a gyroscope is mentioned, most people immediately think of mechanical gyroscopes, essentially a spinning disc that is is mounted inside multiple gimbals allowing it to take any orientation. However, the gyroscope inside the iPhone 4 is aMEMS-based gyroscope (or more likely three independent MEMS gyroscopes).

I hope this helps.

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