Your smartphone is a remarkable feat of engineering. It\u2019s half a dozen or more gadgets packed into a single slab. Much of it\u2019s coolest feats are accomplished with a wide range of sensors \u2014 but what are they and what do they all actually do?<\/p>\n
How does your phone count your steps and replace your fitness tracker? Does GPS use up your data? Which sensors should you make sure are in your next handset?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s all you need to know.<\/p>\n
Accelerometer<\/strong><\/p>\n Accelerometers handle axis-based motion sensing and can be found in fitness trackers as well as phones\u2014they\u2019re the reason why your smartphone can track your steps even if you haven\u2019t bought a separate wearable.<\/p>\n They also tell the phone\u2019s software which way the handset is pointing, something that\u2019s becoming increasingly important with the arrival of augmented reality apps.<\/p>\n As the name kind of gives away, accelerometers measure acceleration, so the map inside Snapchat can put a cute toy car around your bitmoji when you\u2019re driving, plus a host of other actually useful applications.<\/p>\n The sensor is itself made up of other sensors, including microscopic crystal structures that become stressed due to accelerative forces. The accelerometer then interprets the voltage coming from the crystals to figure out how fast your phone is moving and which direction it\u2019s pointing in.<\/p>\n From switching apps from portrait to landscape, to showing your current speed in a driving app, the accelerometer is one of your phone\u2019s most important sensors.<\/p>\n Gyroscope<\/strong><\/p>\n The gyroscope helps the accelerometer out with understanding which way your phone is orientated\u2014 it adds another level of precision so those 360-degree photo spheres really look as impressive as possible.<\/p>\n Whenever you play a racing game on your phone and tilt the screen to steer, the gyroscope rather than the accelerometer is sensing what you\u2019re doing, because you\u2019re only applying small turns to the phone and not actually moving through space.<\/p>\n Gyroscopes aren\u2019t exclusive to phones. They\u2019re used in altimeters inside aircraft to determine altitude and position, for example, and to keep cameras steady on the move.<\/p>\n The gyroscopes inside phones don\u2019t use wheels and gimbals like the traditional mechanical ones you might find in an old plane\u2014instead they\u2019re MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) gyroscopes, a smaller version of the concept embedded on an electronics board so it can fit inside a phone.<\/p>\n The first time MEMS gyroscopes really hit it big was with the iPhone 4 in 2010. Back then, it was incredibly novel to have a phone that could detect orientation with such accuracy\u2014nowadays, we take it for granted.<\/p>\n Magnetometer<\/strong><\/p>\n Completing the triumvirate of sensors responsible for working out where a phone is in physical space is the magnetometer. Again the name gives it away\u2014it measures magnetic fields and can thus tell you which way is north by varying its voltage output to the phone.<\/p>\n When you go in and out of compass mode in Apple Maps or Google Maps, that\u2019s the magnetometer kicking in to work out which way up the map should be. It also powers standalone compass apps.<\/p>\n Magnetometers are found in metal detectors as well, as they can detect magnetic metals, which is why you can get metal detector apps for your smartphone.<\/p>\n However, the sensor doesn\u2019t work alone for its primary purpose, which is inside mapping apps\u2014it operates in tandem with the data coming from the phone\u2019s accelerometer and GPS unit to figure out whereabouts you are in the world, and which way you\u2019re pointing (very handy for those detailed navigation routes).<\/p>\n GPS<\/strong><\/p>\n Ah, GPS\u2014Global Positioning System technology\u2014where would we be without you? Probably in a remote, muddy field, cursing the day we ditched our paper maps for the electronic equivalents.<\/p>\n GPS units inside phones gets a ping from a satellite up in space to figure out which part of the planet you\u2019re standing on (or driving through). They don\u2019t actually use any of your phone\u2019s data, which is why you can still see your location when your phone has lost signal, even if the map tiles themselves are a blurry, low-res mess.<\/p>\n In fact, it connects with multiple satellites then calculates where you are based on the angles of intersection. If no satellites can be found\u2014you\u2019re indoors or the cloud cover is heavy\u2014then you won\u2019t be able to get a lock.<\/p>\n And while GPS doesn\u2019t use up data, all this communicating and calculating can be a drain on your battery, which is why most battery-saving guides recommend switching GPS off. Smaller gadgets like most smartwatches don\u2019t include it for the same reason.<\/p>\n GPS isn\u2019t the only way your phone can work out where it is\u2014distance to cell towers can also be used as a rough approximation, as Serial taught us\u2014but if you\u2019ve got some serious navigating to do then it\u2019s essential. Modern-day GPS units inside smartphones actually combine GPS signals with other data, like cell signal strength, to get more accurate location readings.<\/p>\n The best of the rest<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ve got plenty more sensors in your handset, though they\u2019re perhaps not all as important as the four we\u2019ve just mentioned. Many phones, including the iPhone, have a barometer that measures air pressure: it\u2019s useful for everything from detecting weather changes to calculating the altitude you\u2019re at.<\/p>\n The proximity sensor usually sits up near the top speaker and combines an infrared LED and light detector to work out when you have the phone up to your ear, so that screen can be switched off. The sensor emits a beam of light that gets bounced back, though it\u2019s invisible to the human eye.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the ambient light sensor does exactly what you would expect, taking a measuring of the light in the room and adjusting your screen\u2019s brightness accordingly (if indeed it\u2019s set to auto-adjust).<\/p>\n Like the rest of the tech packed inside your handset, these sensors are getting smaller, smarter, and less power-hungry all the time, so just because phones five years apart both have GPS doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re both going to be as accurate. Add in software tweaks and optimizations too and it\u2019s more reason to upgrade your handset on a regular basis, even if you\u2019ll almost never see these sensors listed on a specs sheet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your smartphone is a remarkable feat of engineering. It\u2019s half a dozen or more gadgets packed into a single slab. 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