Summary

This chapter examined each Windows Phone sensor in detail, beginning with the accelerometer. You saw how to process accelerometer readings, and how to simulate acceleration within the Windows Phone emulator. The chapter explored how to apply data smoothing to accelerometer readings to decrease jittering of UI elements without sacrificing responsiveness. You also learned how to calibrate the accelerometer, and how to perform shake detection using the accelerometer.

The chapter then looked at the compass sensor and explained how to use the compass’s magnetic heading to build a custom compass app that displays the heading using an arrow. The chapter also discussed compass calibration.

The chapter then moved to the gyroscope sensor, and you saw how to build a UI to display the angular rotation of the phone.

Finally, the chapter examined the motion sensor, which is a virtual sensor that harnesses the hardware sensors to improve accuracy and provide extended orientation and motion information.