Develop Reference

How to detect left and right tilt of an android device mounted with an accelerometer?

Lets say you have the acceleration readings in all the 3 dimensions i.e X, Y and Z. How do you infer using the readings the phone was tilted left or right? The readings get generated every 20ms.
I actually want the logic of inferring the tilt from the readings. The tilt needs to be smooth.

A tilt can be detected in a sort of diferent ways. You can take into account 1 axis, 2 axis, or the 3 axis. Depending on how accurate you want it, and how much you feel like fighting with maths.
If you use only one axis, it is quite simple. Think the mobile is completely horizontal, and you move it like this:
using just one axis, lets say, axis x, will be enough, since you can detect accurately a change in that axis position, since even any small movement will do a change in the axis.
But, if your application is only reading that axis, and the user has the phone almost vertical, the difference in x axis will be really small even rotating the phone a big angle.
Anyways,for applications that only need coarse resolution, a single-axis can be used.
Referring to basic trigonometry, the projection of the gravity vector on the x-axis produces an output acceleration equal to the sine of the angle between the accelerometer x-axis and the horizon.
This means that having the values of an axis (those are acceleration values) you can calculate the angle in which the device is.
this means that the value given to you by the sensor, is = to 9,8 * sine of the angle, so doing the maths you can get the actual angle.
But don't worry, you don't even have to do this. Since the values are more or less proportional, as you can see in the table below, you can work directly with the value of the sensor, without taking much care of what angle represents, if you don't need it to be much accurate, since a change in that value means a proportional change in the angle, so with a few test, you will find out how big should be the change in order to be relevant to you.
So, if you take the value over the time, and compare to each other, you can figure out how big the rotation was. For this,
you consider just one axis. this will be axis X.
write a function to get the difference in the sensor value for that axis between one function call, and the next
Decide a maximum time and a minimum sensor difference, that you will consider a valid movement (e.g. a big rotation is good but only if it is fast enough, and a fast movement is good only if the difference in the angle is big enough)
if you detect two measurements that accomplish those conditions, you take note of half tilt done (in a boolean for instance), and start measuring again, but now, the new reference value is the value that was considered half tilt.
if the last difference was positive, now you need a negative difference, and if the last difference was negative, now you need a positive difference; this is, coming back. so start taking values comparing the new reference value with the new values coming from the sensor, and see if one accomplish what you decided in point 3.
if you find a valid value (accomplishing value difference and time conditions ), you have a tilt. But if you dont get a good value and the time is consumed, you reset everything: let your reference value be the last one, reset the timers, reset the half-tilt-done boolean to false, and keep measuring.
I hope this is good enough for you. For sure you can find some libraries or code snippets to help you out with this, but i think is good, as you say, to know the logic of inferring the tilt from the readings
The pictures was taken from this article, wich i recomend to read if you want to improve the accuracy and consider 2 o 3 axis for the tilt

The commonsware Sensor Monitor app does a pretty good job with this. It converts the sensor readouts to X, Y, Z values on each sensor reading, so it's pretty easy from there to determine which way the device is moving.
https://github.com/commonsguy/cw-omnibus/tree/master/Sensor/Monitor
Another item worth noting (from the Commonsware book):
There are four standard delay periods, defined as constants on the
SensorManager class:
SENSOR_DELAY_NORMAL, which is what most apps would use for broad changes, such as detecting a screen rotating from portrait to
landscape
SENSOR_DELAY_UI, for non-game cases where you want to update the UI continuously based upon sensor readings
SENSOR_DELAY_GAME, which is faster (less delay) than SENSOR_DELAY_UI, to try to drive a higher frame rate
SENSOR_DELAY_FASTEST, which is the “firehose” of sensor readings, without delay

You can use the accelerometer and magnetic field sensor to accomplish this. You can call this method in your OnSensorChanged method to detect if the phone was tilt upwards. This currently only works if the phone is held horizontally. Check the actual blog post for a more complete solution.
http://www.ahotbrew.com/how-to-detect-forward-and-backward-tilt/
public boolean isTiltUpward()
{
if (mGravity != null && mGeomagnetic != null)
{
float R[] = new float[9];
float I[] = new float[9];
boolean success = SensorManager.getRotationMatrix(R, I, mGravity, mGeomagnetic);
if (success)
{
float orientation[] = new float[3];
SensorManager.getOrientation(R, orientation);
/*
* If the roll is positive, you're in reverse landscape (landscape right), and if the roll is negative you're in landscape (landscape left)
*
* Similarly, you can use the pitch to differentiate between portrait and reverse portrait.
* If the pitch is positive, you're in reverse portrait, and if the pitch is negative you're in portrait.
*
* orientation -> azimut, pitch and roll
*
*
*/
pitch = orientation[1];
roll = orientation[2];
inclineGravity = mGravity.clone();
double norm_Of_g = Math.sqrt(inclineGravity[0] * inclineGravity[0] + inclineGravity[1] * inclineGravity[1] + inclineGravity[2] * inclineGravity[2]);
// Normalize the accelerometer vector
inclineGravity[0] = (float) (inclineGravity[0] / norm_Of_g);
inclineGravity[1] = (float) (inclineGravity[1] / norm_Of_g);
inclineGravity[2] = (float) (inclineGravity[2] / norm_Of_g);
//Checks if device is flat on ground or not
int inclination = (int) Math.round(Math.toDegrees(Math.acos(inclineGravity[2])));
/*
* Float obj1 = new Float("10.2");
* Float obj2 = new Float("10.20");
* int retval = obj1.compareTo(obj2);
*
* if(retval > 0) {
* System.out.println("obj1 is greater than obj2");
* }
* else if(retval < 0) {
* System.out.println("obj1 is less than obj2");
* }
* else {
* System.out.println("obj1 is equal to obj2");
* }
*/
Float objPitch = new Float(pitch);
Float objZero = new Float(0.0);
Float objZeroPointTwo = new Float(0.2);
Float objZeroPointTwoNegative = new Float(-0.2);
int objPitchZeroResult = objPitch.compareTo(objZero);
int objPitchZeroPointTwoResult = objZeroPointTwo.compareTo(objPitch);
int objPitchZeroPointTwoNegativeResult = objPitch.compareTo(objZeroPointTwoNegative);
if (roll < 0 && ((objPitchZeroResult > 0 && objPitchZeroPointTwoResult > 0) || (objPitchZeroResult < 0 && objPitchZeroPointTwoNegativeResult > 0)) && (inclination > 30 && inclination < 40))
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
}
return false;
}

Is this what you're looking for?
public class AccelerometerHandler implements SensorEventListener
{
float accelX;
float accelY;
float accelZ;
public AccelerometerHandler(Context paramContext)
{
SensorManager localSensorManager = (SensorManager)paramContext.getSystemService("sensor");
if (localSensorManager.getSensorList(1).size() != 0)
localSensorManager.registerListener(this, (Sensor)localSensorManager.getSensorList(1).get(0), 1);
}
public float getAccelX()
{
return this.accelX;
}
public float getAccelY()
{
return this.accelY;
}
public float getAccelZ()
{
return this.accelZ;
}
public void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor paramSensor, int paramInt)
{
}
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent paramSensorEvent)
{
this.accelX = paramSensorEvent.values[0];
this.accelY = paramSensorEvent.values[1];
this.accelZ = paramSensorEvent.values[2];
}
}

using LinearAcceleration and time passed to get distance traveled - android [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to use Accelerometer to measure distance for Android Application Development
(2 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I know i am opening up a can of worms with trying to get the linear motion of a device using the accelerometer, but please just humor me.
I am trying to figure out the right formula to take the Sensor.TYPE_LINEAR_ACCELEROMETER (which i believe is normal accelerometer data minus gravity) and essentially say "this much time has passed and the i have accelerated x amount since last time, so i have traveled d amount.
should be something like distanceTraveledOnX = linearAccerationOfX * TimePassed;
easy enough in the real world right? if i have been going 1 mile a minute for 10minutes then i have traveled 10 miles.. speed * time = distance
problem is im not sure what the linearAcceleration is using for unit of measure. I know my timePassed is in NanoSeconds as i am saying (in my onSensorChanged)
currentTime = System.nanoTime();//var of type (double)
timePassed = currentTime - lastTime;
lastTime = currentTime;
can someone please help me figure out the formula for translating the linearAcceleration value to a nanoSecond measurement..
thanks
EDIT
here is the code im currently using but im always getting 0 :
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent evt) {
if (type == Sensor.TYPE_LINEAR_ACCELERATION) {
newTime = System.currentTimeMillis()/1000;
float oldVelocity = lastTime1-lastTime0;
float newVelocity = newTime- lastTime1;
if(oldVelocity<1)oldVelocity =1;
newX = lastX1 + ((lastX1 - lastX0)/oldVelocity)*newVelocity +(evt.values[0]/2)*(newVelocity*newVelocity);
lastX0 = lastX1;
lastX1 = newX;
lastTime0 = lastTime1;
lastTime1 = newTime;
Log.v("SENSOR MAN LINEAR", "new X:"+newX);
}
}

This stuff is high school physics, and if you don't know the difference between acceleration and velocity, you'll need to review it before you have any hope here.
I can tell you this much: the linear acceleration readings from a cell phone or tablet aren't remotely precise or accurate enough to do what you want without constant correction (via gps or other methods). There is an entire field of study trying to solve this problem. I've attended conferences on it.
That said, you also need to take into account that the orientation of your device will also change, unless this is some sort of special application, e.g. the device is trapped onto a sled which can only move in one direction.
Let's assume that case, and assume that the device is strapped to your sled with the right side of the device (+X axis) aligned in the direction of travel. Let's also assume that the initial position of the sled is known (call it X0) when the program starts, and that the initial velocity is zero.
Your code looks approximately like this:
double x0; // previous position, meters
double x; // current position
double v0; // previous velocity, meters/second
double v; // current velocity
long t0; // previous time, nanoseconds
long t; // current time
public void onStart() {
x0 = getInitialPosition();
x = x0;
v0 = 0;
v = v;
t0 = System.getCurrentTime() * 1000000;
// Enable sensors; left as an exercise for the reader
}
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) {
// Assume linear acceleration is the only active sensor
double accel = event.values[0]; // X axis is our axis of acceleration
t = event.timestamp;
double dt = (t - t0) * .000001;
v = v0 + accel * dt;
x = x0 + v * dt;
t0 = t;
v0 = v;
x0 = x;
}
This is by no means a complete solution. Doing this right involves differential equations which I'm not equipped to explain here (translation: I've forgotten everything I learned in college). However, if your acceleration value is accurate enough, and your time slice is short enough, this is viable.
If you need to solve this in more than one direction, it's only slightly more complicated provided that the device never changes orientation. If it does, then you also need to capture the rotation sensor and learn about quaternions and rotation matrices.
And even if you do everything right, errors will still accumulate, so now you want some sort of correction factor based on GPS, known geometry of the environment (e.g. if you're indoors and the software has a map of the building, it can make corrections when you turn a corner), and other environmental clues such as WiFi hotspots in known locations.
You might want to read up on Kalman filters at this point.
Executive summary: this is a HARD problem in the general case, and if you solve it, there's probably fame and fortune waiting for you.

Well, the correct form, known from school, is
finalXPosition = (linearAcceleration*timePassed^2)/2+ initialVelocity*timePassed+initialXPosition
finalVelocity = initialVelocity*timePassed
chaining these chunks you'll get your theoretical values.
In practice, best results are achieved by regular calibration of initialXPosition and initialVelocity through GPS.
simple example to receive calibrated horizontal acceleration in onSensorChanged:
class Integrator {
private float position = 0f;
private float velocity = 0f;
public void setGpsPosition (float gpsPosition) {
position = gpsPosition;
}
public void setGpsVelocity (float gpsVelocity) {
velocity = gpsVelocity;
}
public void onAccelerationChangeHandler(float acceleration, float timePassed) {
position += acceleration*timePassed*timePassed/2f + velocity*timePassed;
velocity += acceleration*timePassed;
}
public float getCurrentPosition() {
return position;
}
}
usage for x-acceleration:
long lastTime = 0;
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent evt) {
if (evt.sensor.getType() == Sensor.TYPE_LINEAR_ACCELERATION) {
long newTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
OnAccelerationChangeHandler(evt.values[0], (newTime-lastTime)/1000);
lastTime = newTime;
}
Please, note that outside a minute scale the error makes this all meaningless w/o gps correction. Understand, that if you are walking at constant speed the sensor won't give you anything at all.

GPS coordinates change too frequently

I have used the following code to check GPS coordinates, but problem is that if i am standing at same place the coordinates changes and distance is anywhere between 4 to 20 mts.
I want to change it only when I have moved min 10 mtrs.
locationManager_gps = (LocationManager) this
.getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
locationManager_gps.requestLocationUpdates(
LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 0,
new MyLocationListener_gps());
class MyLocationListener_gps implements LocationListener {
public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
clat = location.getLatitude();
clon = location.getLongitude();
if (clat != plat || clon != plon) {
float[] results = new float[3];
Location.distanceBetween(plat, plon, clat, clon, results);
if (flag_gps == 0) {
flag_gps = 1;
} else {
GeoPoint geoPoint = new GeoPoint((int) (clat * 1E6),
(int) (clon * 1E6));
mapView.getController().animateTo(geoPoint);
draw = new MyOverLay(geoPoint);
mapView.getOverlays().add(draw);
dist_mtr += results[0];
}
plat = clat;
plon = clon;
}
}
If I use 50 as min distance between updates then it is working fine. I also tried making it 30 but also data was wrong over a period of 4 km while traveling in car.
Please suggest what I should do.

I've seen this too, when taking several location readings and I haven't moved. You can get variable results with different accuracies.
You could try taking, say, 10 location readings and take the one with the best accuracy and disregard the rest. Then when taking the next reading, make sure it is located at a distance which is twice the accuracy of the previous location. For example, if your first location has an accuracy of, say 16 meters, make sure the next reading is at least 32 meters away from the previous location AND has an accuracy better than 32 meters.

You need to use the minTime and minDistance in combination. You pass zero and zero for both, so the min time between updates will be at least zero seconds and the min distance will be zero. So set minTime to a reasonable time and minDistance to 10 for ten meters.
locationManager_gps.requestLocationUpdates(
LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 0,
new MyLocationListener_gps());

There is no magic bullet to solve this... the gps is not 100% accurate and you will always have different readings every time you get a new location update.
You can minimize the issue using a low pass filter for the location values:
clat = plat + (clat-plat) * 0.2; // you should adjust the 0.2 value to the best results
clon = plon + (clon-plon) * 0.2;
....
//your code
....
plat = clat;
plon = clon;
With this the effect of sudden changes to the values will be minimized, which is good for the fake changes in position, but it will also delay the response to the real changes in the positions when the device is moving. You should choose careffuly the value of the constant multiplying (0.2 above) to have the best results.
You can even do better, using a variable instead of a constant, and adjust the value of it based on the accuracy of the loaction update (good accuracy you make the variable close to 1, pour accuracy you make the variable close to 0)
good luck

Moving GPS coordinate

I am fairly new to Android programming, but I am getting pretty good at it (I think: ))
What I am doing is building a situated stories app. It is an app that places audio files at certain GPS markers and enables the user to listen to them at specific locations.
The next step is moving audio files. What I want to do is set a marker at a specific position in a city. (done). Next I want to check the location of a second marker that moves in a circle around it.
What I have so far is this:
public void checkCircularPosition(){
/*
* could be a solution?
*
radius = 250; //offset in meters
gpsLatCenter = 5.1164; //?how can i make this accurate in meters?
gpsLonCenter = 52.0963; //??how can i make this accurate in meters?
degree = 0; //should be variable over time (full circle in 1Hr, 3600sec --> 360/3600 = 0,1 deg/s)
radian;
radian = (degree/180)*Math.PI;
gpsCircleLat = gpsLatCenter+Math.cos(radian)*radius;
gpsCircleLon = gpsLonCenter-Math.sin(radian)*radius;
*/
}
Now, I have checked this code in adobe flash, which made a movie clip move around in a circle. So I know the calculations are somewhat right. But, I have no way of calculating the latitude and longitude of the resulting coordinates.
EDIT!!
i found the solution with the help posted below. still a lot of work to figure out how to use the results. anyway, i posted the resulting function below.
to make this work, you need _radius wich is 6371 (earth's radius), a bearing, a distance, and a start location.
thanks a lot guys!
public static void destinationPoint(double brng, double dist) {
dist = dist/_radius; // convert dist to angular distance in radians
brng = Math.toRadians(brng); //
double lat1 = Math.toRadians(_lat);
double lon1 = Math.toRadians(_lon);
double lat2 = Math.asin( Math.sin(lat1)*Math.cos(dist) + Math.cos(lat1)*Math.sin(dist)*Math.cos(brng) );
double lon2 = lon1 + Math.atan2(Math.sin(brng)*Math.sin(dist)*Math.cos(lat1), Math.cos(dist)-Math.sin(lat1)*Math.sin(lat2));
lon2 = (lon2+3*Math.PI) % (2*Math.PI) - Math.PI; // normalise to -180..+180º
Log.i(APPTAG, ""+Math.toDegrees(lat2));
Log.i(APPTAG, ""+Math.toDegrees(lon2));
Location movLoc = new Location("");
movLoc.setLatitude(Math.toDegrees(lat2));
movLoc.setLongitude(Math.toDegrees(lon2));
Log.i(APPTAG, ""+movLoc);
}

You should check the section Destination point given distance and bearing from start point at this website: http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html
That website has the proper formula for using your start point (gpsLatCenter/gpsLonCenter) and bearing (degree in you code) to compute the final lat/lon (gpsCircleLat/gpsCircleLon).

Issue in setting latitude and longitude in android

I am trying to pass latitude and longitude to another activity and check the distance between this passed co-ordinates and the current co-ordinate.
In the first activity:
GeoPoint p1 = mapView.getProjection().fromPixels((int) event.getX(),(int event.getY());
setter(p1.getLatitudeE6()/ 1E6, p1.getLongitudeE6() /1E6);
public void setter(Double lati,Double longi)
{
latitude=lati;
longitude=longi;
}
on the button click event i am passing this with the help of a bundle. This works fine.
In the second activity:
public Location selected_location=null;
Double lati,longi;
Bundle b=this.getIntent().getExtras();
lati=b.getDouble("latitude");
longi=b.getDouble("longitude");
Till this much it works fine. I even printed the values. The real issue is the the lines given below:
selected_location.setLatitude(lati);
selected_location.setLongitude(longi);
I am trying to set the passed latitude and longitude values to a location variable. But this is causing the activity to terminate.
If possible please suggest a solution. If the question is childish please ignore.

If you aim to calculate only the distance you do not need to construct Location objects use this method. It is static and works with long and lat values. I can also help debuging the error if you put the stack trace of the exception.
EDIT The requested example:
float myGetDistance(double startLatitude, double startLongitude, double endLatitude, double endLongitude) {
float [] results = new float[1]; // You need only the distance, thus only one element
Location.distanceBetween(startLatitude, startLongitude, endLatitude, endLongitude, results);
return results[0];
}

You can complete the distance between two points given by it coordinates like this:
final float[] results= new float[1];
// The computed distance in meters is stored in results[0].
// If results has length 2 or greater, the initial bearing is stored in results[1].
// If results has length 3 or greater, the final bearing is stored in results[2].
Location.distanceBetween(refLat, refLong, latitude, longitude, results);
final float distance = results[0]; // meter!
You may reuse the results array for later computations. If you need bearing information use declare the result array of size 3, if you do not need it use size 1 and save the time for the computation of the not needed information this way.