15 smartphone sensors Explained !

The smart phone, also called a mini computer can perform so many tasks & make our life easier.

But, have you ever wondered, how our smart phone works so smartly. Do you know there are so many sensors present in our smart phone which makes it smarter?

Let us now see, how many sensors are present in our smart phone and what their uses are.

1. Accelerometer

Accelerometer detects the motion of the smart phone. Auto rotate feature is also handled by the accelerometer.

Accelerometer senses the position your smart phone. It can also sense whether your phone is on the ground or it is in your hand. 

2. Magnetometer 

Magnetometer plays very important role in navigation.

It works as a compass. It detects the magnetic field and through that it detects the north, south, east and west direction.

 Navigation software uses the data of accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and GPS and then it shows the correct position, correct direction and distance.

3. GPS(Global positioning system)

This sensor tells the position of your smart phone on the earth.

It will tell you your phone’s exact position on the Earth without using internet but to see the further details like street name, place name, etc you need the access of internet.

4. Proximity sensor

In 90% of the smart phone you will find this sensor near the front camera.

When you are on a call, and bring your phone near your ear then you may have noticed that your smart phone screen gets automatically off. This is done by the help of proximity sensor.

Proximity sensor send infrared rays to detect any object in front of the phone(our ears).

With this process, sensor will understand that there is an object near the smart phone and it will turn off the screen.

With its help we can get rid of unwanted touch on the phone’s screen by our cheeks .Turning off the screen also helps to save battery.

5. Ambient light sensor

This is found near the smart phone’s front camera mainly.

This sensor judges the intensity of surrounding light.

The auto brightness feature performs very well because of ambient light sensor.

If there is more light in the surrounding (for ex, in a bright sunny day) then the brightness becomes automatically high. And if, in the surrounding there is less light (like a dark room) then the brightness becomes low.

Because of this sensor we get good viewing experience.

6. Gyroscope

It is the advanced version of accelerometer.

It calculates the angle or degree at which your phone is kept. It calculates finer details of the angular motion. It can sense the angle to which the phone is rotated or the direction to which it is moved.

While playing racing games, you may have noticed that by the movement of your phone you can control the movement of car in the game. When you tilt your phone downwards from left side, then the car turns towards the left direction and vice versa.

When you click 360⁰ image(panorama) that is also possible through gyroscope.it calculates every angle of the movement of smart phone so that we can get pictures of every angle.

Watching VR (virtual reality) video is also possible through this sensor. It calculates the every movement of the phone and changes the viewing angle of the video.

Gyroscope

7. Audio sensor/microphone

Common user knows the audio sensor through the name of microphone.

Audio sensor senses the audio. When you take a call, give voice command to the smart phone or recording any audio it gets activated. It also measures the intensity of the voice.

8. Fingerprint sensor

It stores our fingerprint information. When we try to open our smart phone using fingerprint, it matches the fingerprint info and unlocks the smart phone.

9. Pedometer

It counts the footsteps.

By the help of accelerometer, gyroscope it takes the input and then it calculates the number of footsteps you have walked.

10. Barometer

It measures the altitude. It measures your altitude from the sea level. It also measures the atmospheric pressure.

It helps the GPS (Global positioning system) to provide more accurate data.

Some applications that measure the distance, you have climbed or came down is done by the help of barometer. 

11. Thermometer

Generally there is one internal thermometer but in some smart phones, there is an external thermometer sensor also present.

Internal thermometer sensor – it measures the temperature of the smart phone. If the temperature of the phone becomes very high, then by the help of certain software present, smart phone gets automatically switched off.

If there will be no internal thermometer in the phone, then due to overheat components of the smart phone may burn.

External thermometer sensor – it measures the temperature of the atmosphere.

Read more: Smartphone camera terms explained.

12. IR (Infrared) sensor

By the help of infrared sensor, we can use our smart phone as a remote to control various devices such as our TV, speaker, AC, etc.

13. NFC(Near field communication)

It helps to communicate and share files between two devices having less separation (not more and 3-4 cm).

With one tap you can send or receive any type of data but with slow speed. 

14. TOF (time of flight)

It is the camera’s sensor which measures the distance between subject and the background by the help of infrared rays. 
It helps in producing good bokeh mode picture. In the camera application we get an option of portrait mode to click pictures in portrait mode, that is only possible because of TOF sensor.

We get a picture in which, the main focus remains on the subject and rest of things remains out of focus (blur).

15. Air humidity and heart rate sensor

Air humidity sensor: It measures the humidity in the atmosphere and tells whether the humidity is suitable for you or not.

Heart rate sensor: It uses led flash and optical sensor to measure our heart rate.

Now I hope that, we have made you understand the different sensors present in our smart phone and what are their uses.

Please tell us, how useful you found this article and if you find any missing points or mistakes in our article, then please let us know in the comment section below. 

That will help us to improve ourselves. 
Thanks for reading:)