Every wonder what exactly your phone can measure, and what kind of sensors are running? Generally speaking, Android supports the following categories of sensors:
Motion sensors
These sensors measure acceleration forces and rotational forces along three axes. This category includes accelerators, 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.
Specific Hardware Sensors
1. Proximity Sensor
A proximity sensor is a sensor able to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact. Like holding the phone up to your ear.
2. Light Sensor
A phone’s light sensor is what measures how bright the ambient light is. This is used to automatically adjust the back lighting on your phone.
3. Barometer
Atmospheric pressure! This improves GPS accuracy.
4. Magnetometer
Compass!
Where are these sensors available for the system to use? Take a look at the table below.
