Scott Gowell, just back from speaking at DevLink about mobile application development, says that sensors are where it's at. Accelerometers are a particularly exciting piece of technology to harness cutting-edge development.
An accelerometer is a device that measures proper acceleration, also called the four-acceleration. This proper acceleration is associated with the weight of a test mass.
--Old Farmer's Wikipedia
Smart Phones and Tablets commonly use accelerometer data for:
- Motion Data: I moved the device relative to the x, y, z for this long, and this fast.
- Orientation sensing: Which way is the device oriented (Portrat or Landscape)
Motion Data is the harder of the two to test. All three emulators and simulators have a built-in function for changing orientation, and there are not many reasons to want non-standard triggers to change in-app orientation.
Android Mobile App Accelerometer
There is a free tool created by OpenIntents that passes information from their sensor simulator to the Android Emulator. In this instance you will need to push a configuration app to your emulator, and then use the sensor simulator and Android emulator in tandem on your development machine.
- openintents.org/en/node/6
- code.google.com/p/openintents/wiki/SensorSimulator
iOS Mobile App Accelerometer
Clever app developers have built a way to use the Accelerometer of a physical device to provide sensor data to the iOS simulator. It requires the use of a free app on your iOS device, then some quick configuration.
- builtby.me/2012/07/howto-use-the-accelerometer-in-the-iphone-simulator/
- itunes.apple.com/us/app/accelerometer-simulator/id336476721?mt=8
Windows Phone Mobile App Accelerometer
The Windows Phone Emulator has a built in Additional Tools Pane that includes a dedicated Accelerometer tab (see figure). This interface behaves similar to OpenIntents Sensor Simulator but does not require any extra configuration.