Sensors Overview

Most Android-powered devices have built-in sensors that measure motion, orientation, and various environmental conditions. These sensors are capable of providing raw data with high precision and accuracy, and are useful if you want to monitor three-dimensional device movement or positioning, or you want to monitor changes in the ambient environment near a device. For example, a game might track readings from a device's gravity sensor to infer complex user gestures and motions, such as tilt, shake, rotation, or swing. Likewise, a weather application might use a device's temperature sensor and humidity sensor to calculate and report the dewpoint, or a travel application might use the geomagnetic field sensor and accelerometer to report a compass bearing.

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.

You can access sensors available on the device and acquire raw sensor data by using the Android sensor framework. 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.

This topic provides an overview of the sensors that are available on the Android platform. It also provides an introduction to the sensor framework.

Introduction to Sensors

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. They derive their data by directly measuring specific environmental properties, such as acceleration, geomagnetic field strength, or angular change. Software-based sensors are not physical devices, although they mimic hardware-based sensors. Software-based sensors derive their data from one or more of the hardware-based sensors and are sometimes called virtual sensors or synthetic sensors. The linear acceleration sensor and the gravity sensor are examples of software-based sensors. Table 1 summarizes the sensors that are supported by the Android platform.

Few Android-powered devices have every type of sensor. For example, most handset devices and tablets have an accelerometer and a magnetometer, but fewer devices have barometers or thermometers. Also, a device can have more than one sensor of a given type. For example, a device can have two gravity sensors, each one having a different range.

Table 1. Sensor types supported by the Android platform.

Sensor Framework

You can access these sensors and acquire raw sensor data by using the Android sensor framework. The sensor framework is part of the android.hardware package and includes the following classes and interfaces:

SensorManager

You can use this class to create an instance of the sensor service. This class provides various methods for accessing and listing sensors, registering and unregistering sensor event listeners, and acquiring orientation information. This class also provides several sensor constants that are used to report sensor accuracy, set data acquisition rates, and calibrate sensors.

Sensor

You can use this class to create an instance of a specific sensor. This class provides various methods that let you determine a sensor's capabilities.

SensorEvent

The system uses this class to create a sensor event object, which provides information about a sensor event. A sensor event object includes the following information: the raw sensor data, the type of sensor that generated the event, the accuracy of the data, and the timestamp for the event.

SensorEventListener

You can use this interface to create two callback methods that receive notifications (sensor events) when sensor values change or when sensor accuracy changes.

In a typical application you use these sensor-related APIs to perform two basic tasks:

• Identifying sensors and sensor capabilities

  Identifying sensors and sensor capabilities at runtime is useful if your application has features that rely on specific sensor types or capabilities. For example, you may want to identify all of the sensors that are present on a device and disable any application features that rely on sensors that are not present. Likewise, you may want to identify all of the sensors of a given type so you can choose the sensor implementation that has the optimum performance for your application.

• Monitor sensor events

  Monitoring sensor events is how you acquire raw sensor data. A sensor event occurs every time a sensor detects a change in the parameters it is measuring. A sensor event provides you with four pieces of information: the name of the sensor that triggered the event, the timestamp for the event, the accuracy of the event, and the raw sensor data that triggered the event.

Sensor Availability

While sensor availability varies from device to device, it can also vary between Android versions. This is because the Android sensors have been introduced over the course of several platform releases. 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.

Table 2 summarizes the availability of each sensor on a platform-by-platform basis. Only four platforms are listed because those are the platforms that involved sensor changes. Sensors that are listed as deprecated are still available on subsequent platforms (provided the sensor is present on a device), which is in line with Android's forward compatibility policy.

Table 2. Sensor availability by platform.

¹ This sensor type was added in Android 1.5 (API Level 3), but it was not available for use until Android 2.3 (API Level 9).

² This sensor is available, but it has been deprecated.

Identifying Sensors and Sensor Capabilities

The Android sensor framework provides several methods that make it easy for you to determine at runtime which sensors are on a device. The API also provides methods that let you determine the capabilities of each sensor, such as its maximum range, its resolution, and its power requirements.

To identify the sensors that are on a device you first need to get a reference to the sensor service. To do this, you create an instance of the SensorManager class by calling the getSystemService() method and passing in the SENSOR_SERVICE argument. For example:

private lateinit var sensorManager: SensorManager
...
sensorManager = getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE) as SensorManager

private SensorManager sensorManager;
...
sensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);

Next, you can get a listing of every sensor on a device by calling the getSensorList() method and using the TYPE_ALL constant. For example:

val deviceSensors: List<Sensor> = sensorManager.getSensorList(Sensor.TYPE_ALL)

List<Sensor> deviceSensors = sensorManager.getSensorList(Sensor.TYPE_ALL);

If you want to list all of the sensors of a given type, you could use another constant instead of TYPE_ALL such as TYPE_GYROSCOPE, TYPE_LINEAR_ACCELERATION, or TYPE_GRAVITY.

You can also determine whether a specific type of sensor exists on a device by using the getDefaultSensor() method and passing in the type constant for a specific sensor. If a device has more than one sensor of a given type, one of the sensors must be designated as the default sensor. If a default sensor does not exist for a given type of sensor, the method call returns null, which means the device does not have that type of sensor. For example, the following code checks whether there's a magnetometer on a device:

private lateinit var sensorManager: SensorManager
...
sensorManager = getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE) as SensorManager
if (sensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD) != null) {
    // Success! There's a magnetometer.
} else {
    // Failure! No magnetometer.
}

private SensorManager sensorManager;
...
sensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
if (sensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD) != null){
    // Success! There's a magnetometer.
} else {
    // Failure! No magnetometer.
}

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.

In addition to listing the sensors that are on a device, you can use the public methods of the Sensor class to determine the capabilities and attributes of individual sensors. This is useful if you want your application to behave differently based on which sensors or sensor capabilities are available on a device. For example, you can use the getResolution() and getMaximumRange() methods to obtain a sensor's resolution and maximum range of measurement. You can also use the getPower() method to obtain a sensor's power requirements.

Two of the public methods are particularly useful if you want to optimize your application for different manufacturer's sensors or different versions of a sensor. For example, if your application needs to monitor user gestures such as tilt and shake, you could create one set of data filtering rules and optimizations for newer devices that have a specific vendor's gravity sensor, and another set of data filtering rules and optimizations for devices that do not have a gravity sensor and have only an accelerometer. The following code sample shows you how you can use the getVendor() and getVersion() methods to do this. In this sample, we're looking for a gravity sensor that lists Google LLC as the vendor and has a version number of 3. If that particular sensor is not present on the device, we try to use the accelerometer.

private lateinit var sensorManager: SensorManager
private var mSensor: Sensor? = null

...

sensorManager = getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE) as SensorManager

if (sensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_GRAVITY) != null) {
    val gravSensors: List<Sensor> = sensorManager.getSensorList(Sensor.TYPE_GRAVITY)
    // Use the version 3 gravity sensor.
    mSensor = gravSensors.firstOrNull { it.vendor.contains("Google LLC") && it.version == 3 }
}
if (mSensor == null) {
    // Use the accelerometer.
    mSensor = if (sensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER) != null) {
        sensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER)
    } else {
        // Sorry, there are no accelerometers on your device.
        // You can't play this game.
        null
    }
}

private SensorManager sensorManager;
private Sensor mSensor;

...

sensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
mSensor = null;

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

Another useful method is the getMinDelay() method, which returns the minimum time interval (in microseconds) a sensor can use to sense data. Any sensor that returns a non-zero value for the getMinDelay() method is a streaming sensor. Streaming sensors sense data at regular intervals and were introduced in Android 2.3 (API Level 9). If a sensor returns zero when you call the getMinDelay() method, it means the sensor is not a streaming sensor because it reports data only when there is a change in the parameters it is sensing.

The getMinDelay() method is useful because it lets you determine the maximum rate at which a sensor can acquire data. If certain features in your application require high data acquisition rates or a streaming sensor, you can use this method to determine whether a sensor meets those requirements and then enable or disable the relevant features in your application accordingly.

Caution: A sensor's maximum data acquisition rate is not necessarily the rate at which the sensor framework delivers sensor data to your application. The sensor framework reports data through sensor events, and several factors influence the rate at which your application receives sensor events. For more information, see Monitoring Sensor Events.

Monitoring Sensor Events

To monitor raw sensor data you need to implement two callback methods that are exposed through the SensorEventListener interface: onAccuracyChanged() and onSensorChanged(). The Android system calls these methods whenever the following occurs:

• A sensor's accuracy changes.

  In this case the system invokes the onAccuracyChanged() method, providing you with a reference to the Sensor object that changed and the new accuracy of the sensor. Accuracy is represented by one of four status constants: SENSOR_STATUS_ACCURACY_LOW, SENSOR_STATUS_ACCURACY_MEDIUM, SENSOR_STATUS_ACCURACY_HIGH, or SENSOR_STATUS_UNRELIABLE.

• A sensor reports a new value.

  In this case the system invokes the onSensorChanged() method, providing you with a SensorEvent object. A SensorEvent object contains information about the new sensor data, including: the accuracy of the data, the sensor that generated the data, the timestamp at which the data was generated, and the new data that the sensor recorded.

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.

class SensorActivity