android-Sensors

》The Android platform supports three broad categories of sensors:

• Motion sensors

  These sensors measure acceleration forces and rotational forces along three axes. This category includes accelerometers, gravity sensors, gyroscopes, and rotational vector sensors.

• Environmental sensors

  These sensors measure various environmental parameters, such as ambient air temperature and pressure, illumination, and humidity. This category includes barometers, photometers, and thermometers.

• Position sensors

  These sensors measure the physical position of a device. This category includes orientation sensors and magnetometers.

》 The sensor framework provides several classes and interfaces that help you perform a wide variety of sensor-related tasks. For example, you can use the sensor framework to do the following:

• Determine which sensors are available on a device.
• Determine an individual sensor's capabilities, such as its maximum range, manufacturer, power requirements, and resolution.
• Acquire raw sensor data and define the minimum rate at which you acquire sensor data.
• Register and unregister sensor event listeners that monitor sensor changes.

The Android sensor framework lets you access many types of sensors. Some of these sensors are hardware-based and some are software-based. Hardware-based sensors are physical components built into a handset or tablet device.

...For example, many sensors were introduced in Android 1.5 (API Level 3), but some were not implemented and were not available for use until Android 2.3 (API Level 9). Likewise, several sensors were introduced in Android 2.3 (API Level 9) and Android 4.0 (API Level 14). Two sensors have been deprecated and replaced by newer, better sensors.

...Note: Android does not require device manufacturers to build any particular types of sensors into their Android-powered devices, so devices can have a wide range of sensor configurations.

>

 If that particular sensor is not present on the device, we try to use the accelerometer.

private SensorManager mSensorManager;
private Sensor mSensor;

...

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

if (mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_GRAVITY) != null){
  List<Sensor> gravSensors = mSensorManager.getSensorList(Sensor.TYPE_GRAVITY);
  for(int i=0; i<gravSensors.size(); i++) {
    if ((gravSensors.get(i).getVendor().contains("Google Inc.")) &&
       (gravSensors.get(i).getVersion() == 3)){
      // Use the version 3 gravity sensor.
      mSensor = gravSensors.get(i);
    }
  }
}
else{
  // Use the accelerometer.
  if (mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER) != null){
    mSensor = mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER);
  }
  else{
    // Sorry, there are no accelerometers on your device.
    // You can't play this game.
  }
}

>  The following code shows how to use the  onSensorChanged()  method to monitor data from the light sensor. This example displays the raw sensor data in a  TextView  that is defined in the main.xml file as  sensor_data .

public class SensorActivity extends Activity implements SensorEventListener {
  private SensorManager mSensorManager;
  private Sensor mLight;

  @Override
  public final void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    mSensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
    mLight = mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_LIGHT);
  }

  @Override
  public final void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy) {
    // Do something here if sensor accuracy changes.
  }

  @Override
  public final void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) {
    // The light sensor returns a single value.
    // Many sensors return 3 values, one for each axis.
    float lux = event.values[0];
    // Do something with this sensor value.
  }

  @Override
  protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    mSensorManager.registerListener(this, mLight, SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_NORMAL);
  }

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

>  Using Google Play filters to target specific sensor configurations

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