Sensor Services Overview

Key Concepts and Terms

Sensor

A sensor is a hardware measuring device connected to the Symbian device, which measures a physical quantity in its immediate vicinity and converts that quantity into small sets of numeric digital values.

Sensor Subsystem (SSY)

Sensor Subsystems are plug-ins that connect the sensor hardware with the sensor server.

Architecture

Figure 1. Sensor Services Architecture

The Sensor Services collection consists of the following components:

• Sensor Framework , which provides sensor server and plug-in interfaces for adding any new sensor plug-in as required. The framework also provides sensor channel APIs for creating a medium (sensor channel) of exchange between the client applications and the sensor hardware. The sensor plug-ins retrieve data from sensor hardware (through sensor channels) and enable the client applications to use the data for specific requirements.

• Data Compensator , which uses data provided by the sensor plug-ins to correct the sensor axis data based on the current orientation of the Symbian device. This data can be used by the client applications to display the pages in portrait or landscape views.

Typical Uses

• Using Sensor Channel APIs .

• Compensating Sensor Data for Display Orientation