Sensor & Sensoribility
Tutorials – Cordova Sensor
Frameworks like Cordova make creating simple mobile apps quite easy. Making apps that use your phone's sensor is slightly trickier, but, thanks to a new universal standard, things are not as hard as you may think.
In the May 2018 issue of Linux Magazine, you learned how to read and transfer GPS data from a phone to a computer [1]. That made me wonder if you could also play with data collected from other sensors on your phone. The answer I knew immediately would be "yes," but could it be done in simple enough way that would allow me to explain it in a shortish tutorial written in plain English?
My first instinct was to use an existing app. I found several apps that looked promising but ended up having to discard them all, because they were proprietary and tended to leak data, or they were unstable and crashed, or the code was very old and no longer maintained.
There was one that caught my eye: SSJ Creator [2], which is open source, developed by researchers, and has an interesting node-based interface (Figure 1) that lets you configure which sensor gets read and where you pipe its output (Figure 2).
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.