Android Sensor Programming By Example

Motion, position, and environmental sensors

The Android platform supports mainly three broad categories of sensors: the motion, position, and environment-based sensors. This categorization is done based on the type of physical quantity detected and measured by the sensors.

Motion sensors

Motion sensors are responsible for measuring any kind of force that could potentially create motion in the x, y, and z axes of the phone. The motion could be either a linear or angular movement in any direction. This category includes accelerometers, gravity, gyroscope, and rotational vector sensors. Most of these sensors will have values in the x, y, and z axes, and the rotational vector will especially have extra value in the fourth axis, which is the scalar component ...