Advanced Android Development

Sensors

Lesson 3

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 1
national License
3.1 Sensor basics
Measure motion, orientation, and
environmental conditions

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 2
national License
Contents

● Categories and types of sensors

● Emulating sensors
● Android sensor framework
● Discovering sensors and sensor capabilities
● Handling sensor configurations
● Monitoring sensor events
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 3
national License
Categories
and
types of
sensors
Sensor basics

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 4
national License
Categories of sensors
● Motion sensors
● Environmental sensors
● Position sensors

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 5
national License
Motion sensors
Measure device motion
● Accelerometers
● Gravity sensors
● Gyroscopes
● Rotational vector sensors

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 6
national License
Environmental sensors
Measure environmental
conditions
● Barometers
● Photometers (light sensors)
● Thermometers

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 7
national License
Position sensors

Measure physical position of

device
● Magnetometers
(geomagnetic field sensors)
● Proximity sensors

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 8
national License
Types of sensors

Sensor types supported by the Android platform

● Hardware-based sensors
● Software-based sensors

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 9
national License
Hardware-based sensors

Physical component built into device

● Derives data by directly measuring specific properties
● Examples:
light sensor, proximity sensor,
magnetometer, accelerometer

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 10
national License
Software-based sensors

Software: virtual or composite sensor

● Derives data from one or more hardware sensors
● Examples: linear acceleration, orientation.

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 11
national License
Sensor availability
Sensor availability varies from device to device, it can also
vary between Android versions
● Most devices have accelerometer and magnetometer
● Some devices have barometers or thermometers
● Device can have more than one sensor of a given type
● Availability varies between Android versions

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 12
national License
Emulating
sensors

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 13
national License
Sensors and Android emulator

● Virtual sensor controls for testing:

In emulator, use the panel on the right side, select ... >
Virtual sensors
○ Accelerometer tab:
Test app for changes in device position and/or orientation
○ Additional sensors tab:
Simulate position and environment sensors

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 14
national License
Sensors and Android emulator

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 15
national License
Emulator: Accelerometer tab

● Simulates device motion such as tilt and rotation

● Simulates the way accelerometers and magnetometers
respond
● Resulting Values fields show values
app can access

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 16
national License
Emulator: Additional sensors tab

● Ambient temperature
● Magnetic field at the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis.
Values are in microtesla (μT)
● Proximity: Distance of device from object
● Light: Measures illuminance
● Pressure: Measures ambient air pressure
● Relative humidity
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 17
national License
Android sensor
framework

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 18
national License
Framework classes and interfaces

SensorManager
● Access and listen to sensors
● Register and unregister sensor event listeners
● Acquire orientation information
● Provides constants for accuracy, data acquisition rates,
and calibration
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 19
national License
Important framework classes

● Sensor: Determine specific sensor's capabilities

● SensorEvent: Info about event, including raw sensor data
● SensorEventListener: Receives notifications about
sensor events
○ When sensor has new data
○ When sensor accuracy changes

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 20
national License
Sensor class types and typical uses
TYPE_ACCELEROMETER Detecting motion (shake, tilt, etc.)
TYPE_AMBIENT_TEMPERATURE Monitoring air temperature
TYPE_GRAVITY Detecting motion (shake, tilt, etc.)
TYPE_GYROSCOPE Detecting rotation (spin, turn, etc.)
TYPE_LIGHT Controlling screen brightness
TYPE_LINEAR_ACCELERATION Monitoring acceleration along single axis
TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD Creating a compass
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 21
national License
Using sensors
● Determine which sensors are available on device
● Determine an individual sensor's capabilities
○ Maximum range, manufacturer, power requirements, resolution

● Register sensor event listeners

● Acquire raw sensor data
○ Also define minimum rate for acquiring sensor data

● Unregister sensor event listeners

This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 22
national License
Discovering
sensors and
capabilities

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 23
national License
Identify sensors

Create an instance of SensorManager

● Call getSystemService()
● Pass in SENSOR_SERVICE argument

mSensorManager = (SensorManager)
getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 24
national License
Get list of sensors

Use getSensorList()
● To get all device sensors, use TYPE_ALL constant
List<Sensor> deviceSensors =
mSensorManager.getSensorList(Sensor.TYPE_ALL);

● To get sensors of specific type, use a constant such as

TYPE_PROXIMITY, TYPE_GYROSCOPE, or TYPE_GRAVITY

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 25
national License
Identify sensor features
Sensor class methods
● getResolution() for sensor resolution
● getMaximumRange() for maximum range of measurement
● getPower() for sensor's power requirements
● getVendor() and getVersion() to optimize for different sensors or
different versions of sensor
● getMinDelay() to determine maximum rate at which sensor can
acquire data

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 26
national License
Example: Identify magnetometer sensor
private SensorManager mSensorManager;
// ...
mSensorManager = (SensorManager)
getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
if (mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor
(Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD) != null){
// Success! There's a magnetometer.
} else {
// Failure! No magnetometer.
}

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 27
national License
 Handling
different sensor
configurations

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 28
national License
Use Google Play filters to target devices

● Google Play filters target specific sensor configurations

○ Filter app from devices that don't have sensor configuration
○ <uses-feature> in Android manifest

<uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer"
android:required="true" />

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 29
national License
Detecting sensors at runtime
● Detect sensors at runtime to turn off app features as
appropriate
● Use getDefaultSensor() and pass in type constant for
specific sensor such as TYPE_PROXIMITY,
TYPE_GYROSCOPE, or TYPE_GRAVITY
● If there are more than one sensor for a given type, system
designates one as default
● If none of that type exist, method returns null
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 30
national License
 Monitoring
sensor events

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 31
national License
Register listener for sensor event

● App must register listener for sensor event

● Register in activity onStart() and unregister in onStop()
○ Don't register in onCreate(), onResume(), or onPause()
○ Ensures sensors use power only when app is in foreground
○ Sensors continue running even if app is in multi-window mode

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 32
national License
Register listener in onStart()
● Register sensor event listener for specific sensor
@Override
protected void onStart() {
super.onStart();
if (mIsLightSensorPresent) {
mSensorManager.registerListener(this, mSensorLight,
SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_UI);
}
}

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 33
national License
Unregister listener in onStop()

@Override
protected void onStop() {
super.onStop();
mSensorManager.unregisterListener(this);
}

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 34
national License
Monitor sensor events

1. Implement SensorEventListener interface with

callbacks
○ onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event)
○ onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy)

2. Get sensor types and values from SensorEvent object

3. Update app accordingly

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 35
national License
SensorEventListener and callbacks
public class SensorActivity extends Activity
Implements SensorEventListener {
// …
@Override
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent sensorEvent) {
// Do something here if sensor data changes.
}
@Override
public final void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy) {
// Do something if sensor accuracy changes.
}
}
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 36
national License
onAccuracyChanged()
● onAccuracyChanged() called when a sensor accuracy
changes
● Sensor object identifies sensor that changed accuracy
● Accuracy status constant:
○ SENSOR_STATUS_ACCURACY_LOW
○ SENSOR_STATUS_ACCURACY_MEDIUM
○ SENSOR_STATUS_ACCURACY_HIGH
○ SENSOR_STATUS_UNRELIABLE
○ SENSOR_STATUS_NO_CONTACT
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 37
national License
 onSensorChanged()
onSensorChanged() called when sensor reports new data,
passing in a SensorEvent
A SensorEvent object contains information about the new
sensor data
○ sensor: Sensor that generated the event (Sensor object)
○ values: Data that the sensor generated, as an array of float values.
Different sensors provide different amounts and types of data.

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 38
national License
Example: Changes to light sensor
@Override
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent sensorEvent) {
int sensorType = sensorEvent.sensor.getType();
float currentValue = sensorEvent.values[0];

if (sensorType == Sensor.TYPE_LIGHT) {
// Get light sensor string and fill data placeholder.
mTextSensorLight.setText(getResources().getString(
R.string.label_light, currentValue));
}
}
This work is licensed under a
Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 39
national License
What's next?

● Concept chapter: 3.1 Sensor basics

● Practical: 3.1 Working with sensor data

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 40
national License
END

This work is licensed under a

Advanced Android Development Sensors Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter 41
national License