The New Sensors in the SGS4 - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Okay, so from what I hear, the new S4 is going to include sensors to measure ambient temperature, pressure and humidity.
I hope I have this right, because I think this is AWESOME! As an electrical gadget design engineer, I know that there are only a handful of sensors out there -- thousands of different sensors yes, but only a few dozen things that can be measured.
Well, what I love about the smartphone and the Android dev scene is that so many awesome applications have been invented in only a the last few years just because of the synergy of sensors in these new mobile computers that were never seen in personal computers up until the smartphone.
Example apps like Google Sky or a dynamometer because of a gps and accelerometer, or Google Latitude because of the networked GPS receiver.
Or how about traffic overlay on Google maps? This kind of traffic reporting accuracy wasn't possible before without a LOT of very expensive equipment permanently installed in large cities. But now it is virtually FREE and more accurate because someone realized that an update to Google Maps would include sending positione/time data back to central servers to monitor every client device on the road to see how well the traffic is moving.
Well, today I am thinking about the weather. I like to use weather apps, to check the forecast, but I think it is funny that some would use the app to see realtime weather in their area when they can just look outside (lol). But seriously, weather forecasting is a very complex science, and it takes a LOT of sensing equipment to get better data and better results. But now we will have phones EVERYWHERE that can detect three weather metrics with the kind of resolution never seen before. Imagine the increase of real time accuracy that might be achieved if google maps used these data metrics for weather overlays like they use position data for traffic overlays.
just some thoughts...
So what other killer apps might come our way if these new three sensors become commonplace in all future phones?
What other sensors would be a good idea? why?

This is a solid point about accumulating data. I do wonder how accurate the sensors are, though. For one thing they're taken only at the ground level, and then you have to account for the heat that builds up while holding it and web browsing/playing games, and then there's the issue of space as often times the phone will sit in your pocket or bag. Still, given enough people using them it could give something measurable. SETI certainly is making use of the great processors in phones to gather Scientific information regarding the Universe.
As for Apps, no idea. I mean, they managed to take the magnetic sensor in phones and make a metal detector out of it, so one can only imagine what can be done with the Humidity/Thermometer in other applications.

The only new sensor is the hygrometer. Barometers have been in phones since the Galaxy Nexus. Temperature sensors have always been in the phone, it's just that they measure battery/SoC temps, not ambient air temps.

Ya it will be interesting to see how data is dealt with, given that so many phones will be in pockets and purses, which to some degree is discoverable via proximity sensor. Other surroundings and vehicles that move the phones will be a challenge. GPS might give hints that it is in a car. Hot dashboard? light sensor. Air conditioner? hmmmm . Ya its all pretty tricky.
But it is amazing these days what can be sensed with a simple sensor. Like, keyboard keystroke capturing is being done via a phone sitting on a desk close to a keyboard, using the phones microphone and accelerometer. Yep! word capture eavesdropping to a pretty surprisingly high degree of accuracy!
The extra temp sensor in the S4 will be ambient right?

maybe one to detect bombs/radioactive/chemicals
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Hey cool image!!! 9 sensors listed.
They left out he GPS, camera, and microphone!
That's 12 sensors. Any others?

Related

[APP] Cockpit Companion v1.0

Cockpit Companion - software toolbox for pilots!
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Current Features:
Conversions
Even though the aviation buisness has come a far way in narrowing down the amount of different units used, conversions are sometimes still needed.
Cockpit Companion handles several handy conversions, and new types are added all the time. This is a list of the currently available conversions.
Nautical Miles to Statue Miles
Statue Miles to Nautical Miles
Nautical Miles to Kilometers
Kilometers to Nautical Miles
Feet to Meters
Meters to Feet
Pounds to Kilograms
Kilograms to Pounds
US Gallons to Litres
Litres to US Gallons
Imperial Gallons to Litres
Litres to Imperial Gallons
Degrees Fahrenheit to Degrees Celcius
Degrees Celcius to Degrees Fahrenheit
Millibars to Inches of Mercury
Inches of Mercury to Millibars
Altitude Calculations
Cockpit Companion can help you to calculate the following important altitudes.
Pressure Altitude
Density Altitude
Approximate Cloud Base Altitude
Airspeed Calculations
Cockpit Companion can help you with the following handy airspeeds functions.
Plan TAS - Retrieve the True Airspeed (TAS) and Machnumber based on what Calibrated Airspeed (CAS) you wil fly your aeroplane at.
Plan Mach - Calculate what True Airspeed (TAS) is needed to fly at the desired Mach Number.
Required CAS - Find out what Calibrated Airspeed (CAS) is needed to fly at your desired True Airspeed (TAS).
Weather Download
As a pilot it's of the highest importance to always have the latest weather and forecasts at hand. Cockpit Companion will ensure this is always the case.
Using any available internet connection (wifi, 3G, GPRS etc) Cockpit Companion will download the latest available weather for your destination.
Download Metars
Download TAFs
Download Short Tafs
Flight Planning
Cockpit Companion is a great tool when you are planning your next flight. It has the following capabilities.
Leg Planning - Input your Course, Tas and Wind to recieve your Heading to steer and your Groundspeed.
Leg Time - Fast calculation of the time it will take to fly a certain distance.
To/From - Quick way to get the Course for the reverse trip back home.
Cross- and Headwind Component - Make sure before you start that the wind at the destination is not beyond the capabilities of you or your aircraft.
Unknown Wind - An inflight tool to calculate the apparent Wind.
Download: http://cockpitcompanion.sonnysvensson.se
reserved for future use
Reserved for future use
I will test it, thanks
Looks like a neat, polished app. I'll definitely use it and report any errors, if any.
Thanks!
AkshayGenius said:
Looks like a neat, polished app. I'll definitely use it and report any errors, if any.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope you like it! Any error reporting and suggestions for new functions are greatly appreciated!
/Sonny
i have loaded the program onto my xperia but am having a few problems. once i have loaded the demo then closed it down i can't open it again without turning my phone off then on. is this just a demo thing?
also does the program allow you to view more than one taf and metar at a time?
final question, does it allow you to store your regular tafs and metars or do you have to put in the icao designator each time?
looks a good program from the demo, shame it only lets me load the program once.
many thanks
I've discussed these issues with faarn via email already, but I thought I should make a little post here as well if anyone else is wondering or having the same problem!
faarn said:
i have loaded the program onto my xperia but am having a few problems. once i have loaded the demo then closed it down i can't open it again without turning my phone off then on. is this just a demo thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems to be a problem on some devices because windows mobile does not kill the actual process when you close the application via the "X" in the top-right corner. Closing the application by using the "Exit" button supplied within the application, will close everything properly though, and there should be no problem restarting the application.
faarn said:
also does the program allow you to view more than one taf and metar at a time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No not in the current version.
faarn said:
final question, does it allow you to store your regular tafs and metars or do you have to put in the icao designator each time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This funtionality will be added in the next version.
/Sonny

Axis-inversion bug with multi-touch?

I've read most HTC multi-touch handsets use a bugged controller that has an axis-inversion issue. You can test this yourself on all Android handsets by downloading the Multitouch Visible Test (Battery Powered Games) application from the Android Market. The Motorola Droid doesn't have this problem, so I've read.
For example, my HTC Magic (32A) will show this axis-inversion problem after performing a diagonal pinch gesture and then pulling my fingers apart again (while still contacting the screen), although it can take several pinches to demonstrate it. The phone will usually correctly detect the position of my fingers when I pinch, but when parting my fingers again the phone will believe my fingers are retreating to the wrong corners of my screen.
Can someone with an HTC Legend please test the screen with this application for me? Cheers!
Hi,
I just tested, and yes it is like on Magic, he inversed multitouch in few seconds, but then he is back on track.
So it is a HTC bug.
Thanks. If this device ever becomes available in Australia I think I will still consider getting one.
While the bug is still there, I don't think very many (if any) multi-touch gestures care too much about exactly where your fingers are. For the pinch gesture, it really only matters where your fingers are in relation to each other.
It sucks that there's a bug, but there's nothing we can do about it. And it's really a very nice phone in every other aspect.
Well, I didnt find this bad, and I am using it big time, internet, photos and stuff , so bug can be bug, but it is not bugging me
Here is a picture which I take for review of pinch to zoom:
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beetleman said:
Well, I didnt find this bad, and I am using it big time, internet, photos and stuff , so bug can be bug, but it is not bugging me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, there are no bugs in a Legend.
Multitouch is as brilliant as it is easy. When 2 points on a touch screen are pressed. You get 2 X and 2 Y coordinates. Problem is, it is impossible to know where the actual fingers are at this point. There are 4 options for each finger (2 x and 2 y combined)
As you can see in this example, the light blue dots are your fingers. The dark blue dots are the other options for the software to consider. The lines illustrate what x and y range the software will get to determine where the fingers actually are.
Luckily, it is very rare for people to put their fingers on the screen at the exact same moment. Which gives the software a hint for where your fingers actually are.
And for most gestures (like pinching) it doesn`t matter where the fingers are.
This the type of capacitive touchscreen that is used by HTC. Apple however has a far more advanced type of touchscreen that uses more sensors then just x & y. The touchpad of a MBP can detect up to 11 fingers and still is very accurate. How many the iPhone can detect I'm not sure, but it certainly uses a more advanced touchscreen then HTC Android devices.

Camera hardware hacking/Lens mod to get night vision pics with galaxy s

After few webcams,and cammera modificatiosns makeing them to be very practical in the night tought i can have a Galaxy S same.Without too many knowledge in this area i disasamble the Galaxy S camera and i unmount the first lens (which tought is the IR Filter) and surprise ...Galaxy S camera still couldnt see the IR light lol...
I already brocken the camera then nothing to lose eneymore and i disasambled all parts of it...and still coulnd see the IR light.
Mabye someone with more knowledge in this area can help us to get night pics with our Galaxy S
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more pics abaut this here
somebody did on youtube but they hacked iphone
I was thinking of trying one of the add on lens kit they got for the (gag) iphone.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
good idea to do that
Sometimes the filter is placed directly on the sensor. When looking at it move it to an angle and see if it has a reddish purple hue to it.
You'll most likely also need to replace it with piece of glass of the same thickness or it's going to throw the focal point off.
Great idea. I wonder if they're now integrating IR filter directly on the cmos sensor to reduce cost. If so, then of course it wont be possible to remove. You might try pointing a TV remote at your camera while pressing the remote to make sure it isn't seeing IR with the filters you've already removed.
appletechsupport said:
Great idea. I wonder if they're now integrating IR filter directly on the cmos sensor to reduce cost. If so, then of course it wont be possible to remove. You might try pointing a TV remote at your camera while pressing the remote to make sure it isn't seeing IR with the filters you've already removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt that the IR filter is being integrated directly into the CMOS sensor, more likely the glass there has been doped so that it reduces the IR that does get through. The TV remote trick is the easiest way to see how much IR is getting through.
I think the problem you are having is testing. You are likely testing in a room where you can shut off the lights, you still need some ambient light. Maybe try using some IR LEDs to augment. You also need to increase the time the shutter is open for. This is because since you are collecting so little light that you likely only see black but really the image is just very dark. Maybe pass some of your test images through photoshop or MATlab and do equalization so that you utilize all the brightness levels possible instead of a small subset.
Just like the others said, the High Pass filter (IR Blocking filter) is most likely right on top of the sensor. Might be difficult to do on a phone, and I had troubles removing it on my DSLR, which is now a paper weight. lol

Screen off gestures

Hi guys!
I know there are some old threads about tap2wake feature and so on. But I want to point your attention to a different perspective: gestures. Wouldn' it be useful to launch some apps (camera, google translate,whatsapp, qr code scanner etc) from a simple gesture on your screen when it is off? I think it would be. I'm not a dev, just an android enthusiast. I have no idea how much the implementation of these features can be difficult. But I l'd like to have some opinions by someone who know more than me about the principal difficulties to realize it. If I'm not wrong Nexus 5 has these features(at least tap2wake) thanks to elementalX kernel, it has snapdragon 800 as note 3, so i think it would be possible to implement. Just curious, I'm not saying "please do this, my life depends on it", I'm feeling really good with my note 3 as it is, but I think it would be useful and cool[emoji13] [emoji13].
I asked this a while ago but got no response So i don't know if it even possible to do so, I think the devs knew that the digitzer couldn't be turned out with out the display being on. saying that it's an amoled display so displaying black on it, makes it turned off. But i'm no Kernel Developer so i don't know much about the Kernel
Maybe you're right about amoled. But I tried Knockr app, that puts your screen black and you can use gesture with "screen off" or blacked screen. So I think digitizer is on and screen is off, but as app is in memory and active it keeps wakelocks keeping CPU at high frequencies. So it will drain the battery, and it is not such a good thing. Surely a kernel solution would be more battery friendly, avoiding cpu wakelocks or at least putting cpu at lowest frequencies.
Yep
As already stated, it would require kernel-level support, and even then, would likely be an increased drain on the battery. There's no reason it couldn't be done, though.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the idea. I'd rather use lock screen shortcuts. It only takes a fraction if a second to press a button and bring up the lock screen, and there's no worrying about accidentally inputting any 'gesture' while the phone's in your pocket. But that's just my opinion...
About gestures in your pocket I think it will be quite difficult since we had a capacitive touchscreen, at least I never had such problem. But you're right if you can customize your lockscreen shortcut launch an app won't take too long. But you need to have the possibility to customize your lockscreen shortcuts like in cm-based ROMs. For example I really like TW lockscreen, I don't want any third part app to replace it. By the way, thanks to say your opinion, have different points of view is a good thing.[emoji6]
So I'm asking to myself why nobody implement this feature, if it is possibile, maybe development will take too much time for a feature few people wants.
You're probably right about not having to worry about activating gestures in your pocket. Like I said, I've never tried such a thing. That was just the first thought that came to mind lol.
TW does actually have native lock screen shortcuts that are somewhat customizable, but it takes a bit of work to make it functional (at least on my device).
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A little OT. Where is this option, or better, on which ROM have you got it? [emoji13]
cruor.am said:
A little OT. Where is this option, or better, on which ROM have you got it? [emoji13]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen it enabled in any ROMs by default, but it may be on some other devices. I've been playing around with it on my Note 3 running Alliance, but I don't have it quite 100% functional yet.

Turn Old Android Phone Into A Free Security Camera

Turn Your Old Android Phone Into A Free Security Camera
Something strange is going on in my house. Every night when I go to sleep, someone or something is breaking into my house and CRUSHING ALL OF MY CHIPS! I can never eat any salsa because my chips are always just crumbs. What I have to end up doing is mixing the salsa with the chips like it's cereal and eating it with a spoon! It's just not the same. Today I have decided enough is enough. I must catch this person that is crushing my chips and robbing me of my happiness.
I need to setup a security camera but I'm not too excited about coughing up $100 for a decent one. But what is a security camera anyways, other than a camera with network connectivity? My old Android phone has all those features and more. It's got a motion sensor, WiFi, HD camera, and storage for backing up footage. So let's put that old phone to good use by setting it up as a security camera. I'll show you how!
Mounting The Phone
You're going to want to find a way to mount your camera in a place where it can capture the desired area. You'll need it to be plugged in at all times so keep this in mind when you're figuring out where to put it.
Applying A Fisheye Lens
Now usually security cameras have a wide angle lens so that they can capture the entire room in one shot. I highly recommend getting a lens kit that you can use for your android. Here is a great kit on Amazon for only $10.95.
Besties 3in1 Universal 180° Fisheye Lens
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Installing A Security Camera App
There are several apps to choose from that will turn your phone into a fully functional security camera system. Here is a list of some of the best ones available.
Home Security IP Cam: Alfred
Security Camera Alarm System
AtHome Camera - Home Security
WardenCam Home Security IP-Cam
And that's all you need! Using this method I was able to catch the person that was smashing my chips. Turns out it was me and I sleepwalk. Oops!
this one is going to be quite useful for me!
I use IP Webcam for motion detection and streaming.
Just a thought, but it the main restriction of getting an IP Camera is the price, why not sell the old cell phone for a few dollars (depending on the age, you can prolly get $100 for it) and then you have a proper setup.
Not saying this is a bad idea at all. I have done this in a pinch when maintenance crews are coming to my apartment and I cant be home.
I've been looking at TinyCam Pro since I already have a couple foscams, and it seems to integrate all those along with old android devices while taking care of hw decoding and motion detection archive. Anyone used any of these for a reasonable amount of time?
Quite good idia need to try
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Big savings on this one I guess
that is a good advice, I used to use ip webcam, but it went be down

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