Your phone has tons of built-in sensors that can do amazing jobs. Here's how you can actually test them and take advantage of them.
The sensors present in your mobile phone play a vital role in its proper functioning. From the simple fingerprint sensor that helps you unlock your phone, to the gyroscope that changes the orientation of the screen.
But if you are the restless type and are looking for various hacks and tricks, you can use these sensors to do a lot of things. And of course you can use different apps to see if they work properly and how accurate they are.
Like for example try the 3D magnetometer. Or use your mobile as a pendulum to measure the value of the acceleration of gravity in your place. Or turn your phone into a sonar.
We present you some basic applications with which you can on the one hand control the built-in sensors of your Android phone, on the other hand they do not provide you with some quite useful functionality based on these sensors.
Phyphox
Phyhox has many useful tools that allow you to control your device's sensors and "play" with them. It supports the Greek language, so you won't struggle with the strange terminology of natural units.
The phyphox app is free and gives you access to your phone's sensors either directly, or via ready-made experiments that you can use to extract raw data for further analysis.
It supports the following sensors, as long as they are present on your mobile phone: Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Gyroscope, Light Intensity, Pressure, Microphone, Proximity, GPS.
It can export the data in CSV (Comma separated values), CSV (Tab-separated values) or Excel format.
You will be surprised by the abundance of experiments and tests. Indicatively, it has a frequency generator, sound oscilloscope, sonar, speed measurement with doppler, gyroscope control, acceleration measurement, magnetometer, pressure measurement, light measurement (luxmeter), GPS position acquisition, depth, inclination, magnetic spectrum, clap (!!) measurements.
Also, it can measure the movement like a pendulum, like a spring, the centripetal acceleration, elastic impact, rolling. It has an audio timer, visual timer, proximity timer, motion timer.
It is released for Android and for iPhone. The official website of the application is here.
Phyphox can do what all the following applications do, only the following ones are much easier to use and easier to read.
Magmeter HQ
You have a cell phone antenna near you and want to see what magnetic field creates in your space? Do you want to discover how the cables are routed inside your walls? All this can be measured with the magnetic sensor that your mobile phone has.
The free Magmeter HQ app uses the magnetic sensor and can show you how much magnetic field there is in your space. It requires that you first calibrate your phone's sensor the same way you do for a compass.
It measures the magnetic field in μT (microtesla), has a beautiful analog meter (and digital) and can also play the role of a compass and show you north. Of course as free it contains ads.
Download Magmeter HQ from here.
Light meter
Your Android phone has a sensor to detect light intensity. Light Meter (Lux Meter) uses this sensor to analyze the light levels around you. You can measure the minimum, maximum and average brightness at the location of your mobile phone.
Beautiful graphical environment, Lux Meter is a simple easy to read light meter.
Download Light Meter from here.
Altimeter
Altimeter helps you see your altitude. It is especially useful when you travel. The app uses GPS to give you accurate altitude readings relative to sea level. The best part is that you can use it offline and in airplane mode.
In addition, it has a widget that you can add to your home screen to see your altitude instantly. Altimeter is a free app but comes with a premium version with advanced features.
Download Altimeter from here.
cardiograph
Cardiograph is a cardiograph that allows you to monitor your heart rate. Simply place your finger on the camera and press Start to start taking measurements.
But if your phone has a heart rate monitor sensor you can monitor it through this app.
The app allows you to assign an activity such as rest, warm-up, etc. to each reading. This helps you analyze heart rates at different time periods during a workout. You can check your previous heart rate readings through history and add multiple profiles for other people as well. It also allows you to change the camera to front or back.
Cardiograph is completely free with no ads or locked functions premium.
Download Cardiograph from here
