Database Users

What is G-Sensor?

i couldnt find a thread that explains exactly what it was... is it hardware or software...

hardware. I think its a type of accelerometer.

my wife is also interested in this.

so my phone wouldnt have it then.. doesnt the camera have some kinda sensor like it in it?

your wife needs to get a diamond or touch pro...
andason said:
my wife is also interested in this.
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gotvitamink said:
hardware. I think its a type of accelerometer.
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As far as I know it IS an accelerometer. Same thing I would say. Don't have much knowledge, but it's basically the same technology the iPhone uses. It can detect how you're holding your phone. Yes, you could use your front camera on your phone as a accelerometer and it's been asked before, but no one attempted to do so since it would consume too much battery.

Kraize92 said:
As far as I know it IS an accelerometer. Same thing I would say. Don't have much knowledge, but it's basically the same technology the iPhone uses. It can detect how you're holding your phone. Yes, you could use your front camera on your phone as a accelerometer and it's been asked before, but no one attempted to do so since it would consume too much battery.
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yea i wasn't really sure if it differed from an accelerometer. I used google and wikipedia and i couldn't find anything on G-sensor, and I didn't find G-sensor under the accelerometer wikipedia entry.
but yea, basically the technology that iPhone uses.

someone should do it...

its an accelerometer which is hardware to do what the iphone does where when u turn it to its side its screen also changes to the sideways orientation.

It detects which way the phone is facing and can detect acceleration in 3 axis.

petard said:
It detects which way the phone is facing and can detect acceleration in 3 axis.
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Ah, there is the more technical answer. It can detect movement. Basically you use the 3 axis which detects movement in all directions. You tilt left and right and you tilt up and down. I knew that just didn't know the technical meaning lol.

In most cases the G-Sensor is simply a small metal ball laying in a tub with several contacts. When you turn or move your phone, the ball moves also, connecting some of these contacts to anothers. So the phone can figure out how you hold it (portrait or landscape, upside down etc.) and can switch the screen or perform different actions. Its called G-Sensor because the ball is driven by G-Force.

What is G-Sensor ?
A G sensor is usually an accelerometer. It measures the forces that act on it during changes in velocity. The wiki article below has more details.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer

Dennis78 said:
In most cases the G-Sensor is simply a small metal ball laying in a tub with several contacts. When you turn or move your phone, the ball moves also, connecting some of these contacts to anothers. So the phone can figure out how you hold it (portrait or landscape, upside down etc.) and can switch the screen or perform different actions. Its called G-Sensor because the ball is driven by G-Force.
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False. It's a three (and probably sometimes two) axis MEMS accelerometer - there are a few companies making those, but probably the most popular ones are analog devices' ADXL series. Similar device sits in wiimote (just as a secondary motion detection system, the more accurate one is camera+sensor bar).
Because these chips became really cheap recently, and are way more accurate, reliable, and robust than any mechanical sensors (in the same price ans size range), they're being shoved in every possible device You can find them in digital cameras (used to recognize if the photo is portrait or landscape and tag it accordingly), in hard drives (to detect mechanical shocks and protect the hdd by parking its head), in laptops (usually same as above plus to detect when the computer is falling down or other dangerous situations and protect the hard drives), in cell phones (you probably know this one's uses), in toys, portable media players, and lots of other stuff.
It detects which way the phone is facing and can detect acceleration in 3 axis.
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A more precise answer is that it detects acceleration in three axes, and from these values phone's orientation can be calculated.
[MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION]
It's rather simple - when the phone is normally handled (it's not free falling and it's not being waved around), the dominant acceleration detected by the accelerometer is the gravitational acceleration (-9.81m/s^2 in vertical axis). So, if most of the time acceleration detected along the vertical axis of the phone is bigger than one detected along horizontal axis, the phone is being held in landscape position. If the situation is reversed, it's held in portrait orientation. If the acceleration is largest in the third axis (tangent to the screen), it means that the phone is being held nearly horizontally or it's lying on some surface - better not change screen orientation then
But as i said - it's only true when the dominant acceleration is the gravitational one - the sensor can't tell it from other sources of acceleration like waving the phone around. If you run one of the g-sensor games or demos and try quickly moving the phone around the desk (keeping it horizontal at all times), you'll see that the game will interpret this movement as tilting the phone.
[/MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION]
And by the way, why is this thread in development and hacking?

mr_deimos said:
False. It's a three (and probably sometimes two) axis MEMS accelerometer - there are a few companies making those, but probably the most popular ones are analog devices' ADXL series. Similar device sits in wiimote (just as a secondary motion detection system, the more accurate one is camera+sensor bar).
Because these chips became really cheap recently, and are way more accurate, reliable, and robust than any mechanical sensors (in the same price ans size range), they're being shoved in every possible device You can find them in digital cameras (used to recognize if the photo is portrait or landscape and tag it accordingly), in hard drives (to detect mechanical shocks and protect the hdd by parking its head), in laptops (usually same as above plus to detect when the computer is falling down or other dangerous situations and protect the hard drives), in cell phones (you probably know this one's uses), in toys, portable media players, and lots of other stuff.
A more precise answer is that it detects acceleration in three axes, and from these values phone's orientation can be calculated.
[MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION]
It's rather simple - when the phone is normally handled (it's not free falling and it's not being waved around), the dominant acceleration detected by the accelerometer is the gravitational acceleration (-9.81m/s^2 in vertical axis). So, if most of the time acceleration detected along the vertical axis of the phone is bigger than one detected along horizontal axis, the phone is being held in landscape position. If the situation is reversed, it's held in portrait orientation. If the acceleration is largest in the third axis (tangent to the screen), it means that the phone is being held nearly horizontally or it's lying on some surface - better not change screen orientation then
But as i said - it's only true when the dominant acceleration is the gravitational one - the sensor can't tell it from other sources of acceleration like waving the phone around. If you run one of the g-sensor games or demos and try quickly moving the phone around the desk (keeping it horizontal at all times), you'll see that the game will interpret this movement as tilting the phone.
[/MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION]
And by the way, why is this thread in development and hacking?
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How do you know this surplus of information? Was it from an engineering school / article / books / or phone dissection? How do you know this?

None of these answers made much sense, so I did a google search, found the following:
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/accelerometers.htm

poetryrocksalot said:
How do you know this surplus of information? Was it from an engineering school / article / books / or phone dissection? How do you know this?
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The theory of operation is actually pre-high school level stuff - basic physics (you know, Newton's laws, and theory of gravity)
And the details - caught some of these at the engineering university, some from accelerometer datasheets. I had to interface one of them to a programmable microcontroller a while ago so i needed to do some research on my own

I just got a TP2 and is a bit confused as to the working of the G-Sensor. I have calibrate it (and it is switched on), but nothing happens when I turn the phone sideways - ie turning to landscape mode. Am I missing something or need to activate it somewhere else?
Thanks

stoutseun said:
I just got a TP2 and is a bit confused as to the working of the G-Sensor. I have calibrate it (and it is switched on), but nothing happens when I turn the phone sideways - ie turning to landscape mode. Am I missing something or need to activate it somewhere else?
Thanks
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Hello, try to search on your programs, you will have "G-Config", it allows you to define which applications rotate.

Thanks very much. I searched but couldn't find any G-Config anyware in All programs. Only reference is the G-Sensor in All settings\System.
EDIT: Google reveiled G-Config to be a self written app. (just downloaded) So it's not a HTC app included in the ROM?

Screen not going off in a call!!!

Hy all
I have a strange problem with my X10! The will not go off in a call! (or at least most of the times it won't) The sensors should turn the screen off while the phone is to to my ear but most of the time it will not!
There is a hidden menu that have tests for almost every hardware component but the test for the proximity sensor only shows that the sensor is OFF and won't do the test!
Ideas?

The sensor is the little black circle (sort of) above and to the left of the "n"
e.g. Sony Ericsso'n'
Have you tried putting your finger over it during the test?

same problem here i tried the finger-trick doesnt work

I tried it and the test shows ON while my finger is there! So the sensor works properly but why the dialer is not using it to control the screen?

As stated before, if you cover the 'hole', the screen would not react to any of your finger touches. The screen would still be on but would turn off according to your settings (like 30 seconds or 1 minute or whichever). Try it. Call someone, cover the hole and try to hit 'end call' or slide up the keypad and then cover the hole and try to hit numbers.

The purpose of the proximity sensor is to turn the screen off in a call while the phone is to your ear! if i cover the sensor it must turn the screen off! but it doesn't! There is some kind of timeout set to this! The screen will turn off but after some time! this makes the proximity sensor almost useless!

No, it is to disable touchscreen buttons. It will turn off when time you've selected is over and turn on again and enable touch buttons when you take the phone out from your face.
Though i think you're right, it should turn the screen off to save battery, it is silly to have the screen on when you are using it.
Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

Zenghelis said:
No, it is to disable touchscreen buttons. It will turn off when time you've selected is over and turn on again and enable touch buttons when you take the phone out from your face.
Though i think you're right, it should turn the screen off to save battery, it is silly to have the screen on when you are using it.
Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk
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Quite right!
I guess the expectations are again set by Apple's standards. Their proximity sensor functions as one would expect.
However the sensor on the X10 does what it was designed to do, and that's to deactivate the touchpad whilst the device is held up to your ear.
The screen timeout is a different setting all together (unfortunately).

Baggyb said:
Quite right!
I guess the expectations are again set by Apple's standards. Their proximity sensor functions as one would expect.
However the sensor on the X10 does what it was designed to do, and that's to deactivate the touchpad whilst the device is held up to your ear.
The screen timeout is a different setting all together (unfortunately).
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Not the expectation set by Apple. It's expectation for any right minded individual.
SE software is just well known as one of the worst top players in the industry.
FFS, they spent all the time on DRM, lock the phone, developing battery hungry useless software on 1.6 rather than push out 2.1 asap, that tells you something.

superprelude said:
Not the expectation set by Apple. It's expectation for any right minded individual.
SE software is just well known as one of the worst top players in the industry.
FFS, they spent all the time on DRM, lock the phone, developing battery hungry useless software on 1.6 rather than push out 2.1 asap, that tells you something.
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Why not go through the Manual once before abusing Company left - right.....
Let me copy and paste it for you guys........
Sensors
Your phone has two built-in sensors – a light sensor and a proximity sensor. The light sensor is used for automatic LCD backlight control. The proximity sensor turns the touch screen off when your face touches the screen. This prevents you from unintentionally activating phone functions when you are engaged in a call.

TechGuru_x10 said:
Why not go through the Manual once before abusing Company left - right.....
Let me copy and paste it for you guys........
Sensors
Your phone has two built-in sensors – a light sensor and a proximity sensor. The light sensor is used for automatic LCD backlight control. The proximity sensor turns the touch screen off when your face touches the screen. This prevents you from unintentionally activating phone functions when you are engaged in a call.
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Yes and this is plain stupid use of the sensor! Take the HD2 for instance! Its proximity sensor turns the screen off the second you take the phone to your ear! This is done with every HTC device having the sensor! It is just misused on the X10! I hope that somebody here would correct this with a little program some day!

OrionBG said:
Yes and this is plain stupid use of the sensor! Take the HD2 for instance! Its proximity sensor turns the screen off the second you take the phone to your ear! This is done with every HTC device having the sensor! It is just misused on the X10! I hope that somebody here would correct this with a little program some day!
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This is the main problem with us ,,, we start to compare and complain rather than think why did SE will give two sensors instead of one.
Answer is not known to me but this much I know they know better than us.
If you think you know better, be my guest and throw some knowledge here. I am new to Android but not to SE.

So im new to the forums, but I was having a problem with the proximity sensor...
As stated in a lot of threads, the proximity sensor does work and will "lock" the screen so that once your face is near the screen it will not allow any clicking of the buttons.
Also the screen is supposed to turn off about 15sec into the call. Mine turned off, but then all of a sudden turned on again...this would happen repeatedly.
I found out the solution...it seems advance task killer was not allowing the screen to turn off.
I had auto kill enabled and set it to when the phone was locked to kill apps.
I turned off auto kill, and everything seems to be working fine with the screen and proximity sensor now..
hope this helps anyone having this issue!

thx, same problem here !!

so its pretty clear none of us know the answer to this, but yet we're still bashing each other. LOL! ppl let's get constructive, we dont have the answers so lets accept the fact and seek help some where else.

o2 Germany told me, that Sony Ericsson will bring us an update within the next 4 weeks to all devices.
It will be an update with alot of bug fixes (e.g. proximity sensor ) and speed improvements.
So, be cool. Sony Ericsson is working on that and with Eclair in autumn, our battery will perform very well.

[Q] Is bearing (Compass) controlled by the GPS module?

I have a few apps that rely on an accurate compass (Geocaching, etc.). Not only is my Epic clueless as to the true heading, but it doesn't rotate as I do. In other words, if I'm facing east and turn around, the phone still reads east.
I know there are issues with the GPS, but I wonder if I have something else going on.

There is a separate magnetometer sensor, so the main compass functions that way. And most apps that show compass bearing use that.
Some apps may not align automatically by the compass bearing.
Make sure your magnetic compass is calibrated.

"Wave your phone around in a figure 8 pattern 4-5 times"

Thanks. I'm a dummy. I've never did the figure eight dance long enough. I figured you did it for a while and then hit OK. I continued until the prompt disappeared and it appears to be better.

Turning phone over to mute?

Had this phone for about 5 days so far, and coming from an old HTC one X I'm amazed by the battery life! And generally really liking the phone, however..........
I cannot seem to find how to mute the phone's alerts by turning the phone over onto it's screen. i.e. in a meeting or restaurant, phone begins to ring... and I can just flip it quickly over to shut it up and know that it won't ring again whilst turned over.
I know I'm probably being stunningly dim, but any hints?

alex.mc said:
Had this phone for about 5 days so far, and coming from an old HTC one X I'm amazed by the battery life! And generally really liking the phone, however..........
I cannot seem to find how to mute the phone's alerts by turning the phone over onto it's screen. i.e. in a meeting or restaurant, phone begins to ring... and I can just flip it quickly over to shut it up and know that it won't ring again whilst turned over.
I know I'm probably being stunningly dim, but any hints?
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I guess this isn't supported on x play.

alex.mc said:
Had this phone for about 5 days so far, and coming from an old HTC one X I'm amazed by the battery life! And generally really liking the phone, however..........
I cannot seem to find how to mute the phone's alerts by turning the phone over onto it's screen. i.e. in a meeting or restaurant, phone begins to ring... and I can just flip it quickly over to shut it up and know that it won't ring again whilst turned over.
I know I'm probably being stunningly dim, but any hints?
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That's a handy feature to have... Someone should work on that.

abhish3k9 said:
That's a handy feature to have... Someone should work on that.
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It's kernel related I think. You can tell the developers about it on kernel related thread.

K.khiladi said:
It's kernel related I think. You can tell the developers about it on kernel related thread.
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I don't think so. I think, it's just using the proximity sensor to mute the device while receiving a call. An app for non-rooted phones will do. Though, it can be embedded in custom ROMs.

abhish3k9 said:
I don't think so. I think, it's just using the proximity sensor to mute the device while receiving a call. An app for non-rooted phones will do. Though, it can be embedded in custom ROMs.
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Nope it isn't that easy that just an app would enable it. X play has notification led also but requires custom kernel to support it.

K.khiladi said:
Nope it isn't that easy that just an app would enable it. X play has notification led also but requires custom kernel to support it.
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I might be wrong, but, enabling the notification LED i.e letting power into it or establishing a connection to it (hardware level) is different than using a (already working) sensor. The feature mentioned in this thread is just a cleaver use of sensors.

abhish3k9 said:
I might be wrong, but, enabling the notification LED i.e letting power into it or establishing a connection to it (hardware level) is different than using a (already working) sensor. The feature mentioned in this thread is just a cleaver use of sensors.
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The sensors are working correctly but for that particular trick to work there has to be support from software level and that comes from kernel support. I haven't heard of any app that initiates this flip to mute thing. I could also be wrong. I ain't a developer but just reading stuffs everywhere.

You don't need special kernel support for this.
Any app (if you grant the permission) can mute the phone by setting RINGER_MODE_SILENT via Android Audiomanager.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioManager.html
And any app can choose to be notified on sensor data changes of a specific sensor (e.g. proximity semsor) if it registers a listener for this sensor.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/SensorManager.html
If you combine both and put it as background service you have an app that mutes the phone based on sensor input. E.g. if proximity sensor if covered. Quite easy.
Though for flip to mute proximity sensor alone probably doesn't help as the sensor is a also covered if the phone is in your pocket. I guess gyroscope would be best, which X Play doesn't have...
But maybe you can detect the flip motion also via clever combination of magnetometer and accelerometer data?
But I would be very surprised if there were no apps in Google Play which offer flip to mute functionality

u42671 said:
You don't need special kernel support for this.
Any app (if you grant the permission) can mute the phone by setting RINGER_MODE_SILENT via Android Audiomanager.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioManager.html
And any app can choose to be notified on sensor data changes of a specific sensor (e.g. proximity semsor) if it registers a listener for this sensor.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/SensorManager.html
If you combine both and put it as background service you have an app that mutes the phone based on sensor input. E.g. if proximity sensor if covered. Quite easy.
Though for flip to mute proximity sensor alone probably doesn't help as the sensor is a also covered if the phone is in your pocket. I guess gyroscope would be best, which X Play doesn't have...
But maybe you can detect the flip motion also via clever combination of magnetometer and accelerometer data?
But I would be very surprised if there were no apps in Google Play which offer flip to mute functionality
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Thanks for correction and I haven't heard of any app with that feature.

I haven't seen a standalone app for this (but then I haven't really looked too hard) but if you have xposed installed you can use GravityBox which has "Flip action while ringing" under the "Phone Tweaks" section. Options are:
Do nothing (default)
Mute ringer
Dismiss call
The flip action is defined as "device is flipped face down while ringing".

Magnetic mount affecting phone

I have two magnetic mounts and a metal plate stuck on the back of a third party case. The one in the car does not appear to cause any issues but then I don't generally touch it while on the mount. I have a cheap magnetic mount next to my computer monitor I rest it on during charging. Sometimes the buttons becomes unresponsive although I can scroll etc (I am using Nova Launcher BTW). If I lift the phone off the mount the buttons work again and if I put it back on the mount the buttons continue to work. It seems fairly random. I thought magnets should not interfere too much with smartphones other than perhaps the compass.
It's a bit baffling.
EDIT: After further experimentation it would appear the X Force/Turbo 2 is susceptible strong magnetic fields. If the phone is placed too close to a strong magnet in a certain position then the bottom half of the display becomes unresponsive. I can reproduce it every time. If I place it slightly off center on the phone the magnet does not affect it. Has anyone else experienced this issue using a magnetic car holder?
EDIT 2: I seem to have made a workaround. It seems the plate that comes with my more expensive magnetic phone holder in the car is a bit more affected by the cheaper holder I am now using indoors. I put the plate for the cheaper model in between temporarily and the problem almost went away. So I have put that inside the phone cover as a barrier and now don't get the issue as much. There seems to be some variance in the magnetic properties on each of the holders/plates which does or does not affect the phone.
Very peculiar.

The phone uses magnetic force to function with the use of Motorola's flip cover case. I have one, what you describe is almost like what happens when the cover is closed.

I had a magnetic mount that was too strong cause the motion sensor to "stick" on a different phone. Once I figured out what was causing the problem (because it wasn't obvious to me right away on that phone), I returned the magnetic mount / case and got a refund. On my other phone, I'd have to remove the magnetic case AND reboot the phone for the motion sensor to start working again. It took me quite a while to figure it out, but now I'll stay away from magnetic mounts as much as I wish they would work. It's not worth the damage it can cause to a couple sensitive components in these phones.