Inside iPhone: How the “tilt” controls work.
Posted on 02. Jun, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer in Uncategorized
So you’ve played racing games like Asphalt 4 and Phaze (my new favourite iPhone addiction), you’ve browsed the web on Safari and flipped your screen; but how does this amazingly fun element to the iPhone work? Well to start, it’s not really “tilt” controls as you hear quite often, and probably read in descriptions of iTunes app pages, it’s actually an electrical sensor called an accelerometer [wikipedia link]. More precisely, a triple axis accelerometer. You might recognize that word, you got it, it’s the same sensors found in the Segway, Wii and many other modern wonders.
Figure 1
An accelerometer uses tiny weighted springs which pressure or other sensors read their level. Gravity will push each axis’ spring which is loaded with a specific mechanical resistance. The iPhone then reads the levels of each sensor to find out what direction the iPhone is facing, how fast it’s moving, and what angle it’s tilted at. See Figure 1 for a small diagram on how this works. Anyways, by reading different combinations of the axis’ values, the iPhone’s firmware can then send presets and exact information to applications.
Figure 2 - Image from and owned by Spark Fun (http://sparkfun.com)
Even though this may sound like a complex process, the hardware inside the iPhone can process it in milliseconds. And yes, this works the exact same for the iPod Touch. You can see a picture of what an accelerometer looks like (probably not the one in the actual iPhone) in Figure 2. Hope you enjoyed the post!
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4 Responses to “Inside iPhone: How the “tilt” controls work.”
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Inside iPhone: How the “tilt” controls work.
02. Jun, 2009
[...] Original post by iPhone App Reviews by iPhone App Reviewer [...]
Twitted by iphonefunaddict
03. Jun, 2009
[...] This post was Twitted by iphonefunaddict – Real-url.org [...]
Inside biPhone/b: How the “tilt” controls work. | biPhone/b App bReviews/b b…/b « Iphone Buyer Info
03. Jun, 2009
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onInside biPhone/b: How the â??tiltâ?? controls work. | biPhone/b App bReviews/b b…/bHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
wanakno
18. Jul, 2009
Everyone has info on how it works mechanically but will it be affected by being in a car boat or plane since your phone in relation to the earth is moving?