What Is Accelerometer? How to Use Accelerometer in Mobile Devices?

The accelerometer is a sensor that enables users with an upgraded experience by adjusting an orientation of the app screen in the smartphone and tablet.

The core objective of the mobile phone accelerometer is, the device adapts the orientation as per the device position from horizontal to vertical and vice-versa. To provide a comfortable viewing experience to the users, it measures the position and orientation change of the screens.

Let’s understand this with examples.

If you play a game, then you cannot have a good experience with a horizontal view. A landscape view provides users with more space to play a game on touch-enabled devices.

While using a banking app, then portrait view is highly preferred by users compared to vertical as it is quite easy to add and read the information.

Thus, the accelerometer in smartphone allows you to adjust the view of an app per your viewing comfort.

What is an Accelerometer?

The accelerometer is an electromechanical device that measures the force of acceleration caused by movement or by gravity or by vibration. These forces can be static like gravity force, dynamic senses movement, or vibrations.

Mathematically, acceleration is a measurement of the change in velocity or speed divided by time.

What Does An Accelerometer Do?

The accelerometer can be used for both academic and consumer purposes.

For example: if your laptop drops suddenly while you are using it, an accelerometer can identify causes of the sudden free fall and turn off the hard drive right away to avoid any data damage.

A dynamic accelerometer measures the gravitational pull. If we consider the consumer context, then uses can get a better understanding of the surrounding of an object. It captures each motion of the item, whether it is moving uphill, falling over, tilting, flying horizontally, or aligning downward.

The accelerometer in smartphone is the dynamic one that changes the orientation of the display from portrait to landscape and vice-versa based on the tilt of the phone.

What is Accelerometer in Mobile Phone?

The accelerometer in smartphone measures the linear acceleration of the device. When at rest position in whatever orientation, the figure represents the force of gravity active on the device at the same time it also measures the acceleration on the X and Y axis which will be zero.

Apple has integrated an accelerometer in all of its iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices since the 4th generation.

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What is The Accelerometer Used for in Mobile Devices

Motion Input

The sensor is available in high-end mobile phones. If you own a keypad based mobile phone then you won’t be able to experience this sensor. You must have a smartphone to see how accelerometer helps in changing the orientation of your mobile app.

Personal digital assistants and digital audio players control the user interface of the mobile app with the help of an accelerometer. It adjusts the orientation of content and presentation of the mobile app to make it user-friendly.

As accelerometer in smartphone can track the movement, it is used as a pedometer to count steps, and based on the step it enables users to with the detailed analysis of how many calories burnt, how many kilometers they walked, and more. Thus, the sensor widely used in health & fitness applications and sports apps.

Orientation Sensing

Most of the smartphones use accelerometer these days to align the screen orientation depending on the direction of the device is held. With the inbuilt mobile phone accelerometer, users can get a better viewing experience while turning the page, playing gesture-based games, adjusting from landscape to portrait orientation, and zoom-out & zoom-in on the images.

The accelerometer in smartphone comprises at least a tilt sensor to manage the view of the images. Sometimes, it is used with the purpose to correct shake while taking pictures, auto-rotation of images, play motion-sensitive mini-games.

Key Characteristics of Mobile Phone Accelerometer

• It adjusts the screen orientation from landscape/horizontal to portrait/vertical and vice-versa to enable users with a better view of the app.
• By changing the orientation, it makes photo viewing and web browsing better.
• The accelerometer is highly used for racing games as it is motion-sensitive and interacts and controls the changing direction and steer of the racing vehicle.
• By turning the mobile devices facing downward, users can mute the incoming call.

Credencys Leverages Inbuilt Accelerometer in Mobile App Development

Credencys, a premier mobile app development company, has successfully delivered 500+ mobile app development project to the startup to Fortune 500 companies to help them in achieving their business objective or addressing the organizational challenges. We have a team of skilled mobile app developers who have proven experience in delivering mobile solutions with the accelerometer.

We have helped ABB, the market leader of manufacturing Low Voltage (LV) Motors, to perform pre-emptive maintenance of the industrial motors using the smartphone. In the app, we harnessed the potential of accelerometer to check the speed of the LV motor and collect the data about motors’ health. Analyzing different parameters, the app suggests pre-emptive maintenance. It helped the client to reduce the motor on time by performing on-time repair or replacement.

Planning to build an app like ABB using the power of accelerometer? Let’s connect to create an amazing business solution together that adds value to your organization and customers.

Frequently Asked Questions on Accelerometer in Smartphone

How does an accelerometer in smartphone work?

Accelerometer is the devices that are used to measure acceleration, the rate of change on velocity. However, if we talk about accelerometer in smartphone, it detects changes in the orientation and accordingly rotates the mobile screen. Basically, t helps your smartphone know up form down.

What does an accelerometer in smartphone measure acceleration?

The accelerometer is an in-built comment of a smartphone to measure its acceleration. It tracks the different motion like shaking, tilting, swinging, and rotating and accordingly change the orientation of your app. To calculate and detect the motion, the accelerometer uses the value of XYZ.

What accelerometer is used in the iPhone?

The accelerometer in smartphone measures the acceleration of the device. If we talk about Apple, the tech giant use STMicroelectronics’s accelerometer called LIS302DL 3-axis MEMS for its iPhone and first-generation iPod touch.

What is the use of an accelerometer in android?

The accelerometer works as a sensor in Android based smartphones and tablets that monitors the devolve motion in order to change the orientation of the app. Almost every Android device contains the accelerometer sensor. Surprisingly, it used 10X less power compared to other motion sensors.