Xamarin.Essentials: Accelerometer
The Accelerometer class lets you monitor the device's accelerometer sensor, which indicates the acceleration of the device in three-dimensional space.
Get started
To start using this API, read the getting started guide for Xamarin.Essentials to ensure the library is properly installed and set up in your projects.
Using Accelerometer
Add a reference to Xamarin.Essentials in your class:
using Xamarin.Essentials;
The Accelerometer functionality works by calling the Start and Stop methods to listen for changes to the acceleration. Any changes are sent back through the ReadingChanged event. Here is sample usage:
public class AccelerometerTest
{
// Set speed delay for monitoring changes.
SensorSpeed speed = SensorSpeed.UI;
public AccelerometerTest()
{
// Register for reading changes, be sure to unsubscribe when finished
Accelerometer.ReadingChanged += Accelerometer_ReadingChanged;
}
void Accelerometer_ReadingChanged(object sender, AccelerometerChangedEventArgs e)
{
var data = e.Reading;
Console.WriteLine($"Reading: X: {data.Acceleration.X}, Y: {data.Acceleration.Y}, Z: {data.Acceleration.Z}");
// Process Acceleration X, Y, and Z
}
public void ToggleAccelerometer()
{
try
{
if (Accelerometer.IsMonitoring)
Accelerometer.Stop();
else
Accelerometer.Start(speed);
}
catch (FeatureNotSupportedException fnsEx)
{
// Feature not supported on device
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Other error has occurred.
}
}
}
Accelerometer readings are reported back in G. A G is a unit of gravitation force equal to that exerted by the earth's gravitational field (9.81 m/s^2).
The coordinate-system is defined relative to the screen of the phone in its default orientation. The axes are not swapped when the device's screen orientation changes.
The X axis is horizontal and points to the right, the Y axis is vertical and points up and the Z axis points towards the outside of the front face of the screen. In this system, coordinates behind the screen have negative Z values.
Examples:
When the device lies flat on a table and is pushed on its left side toward the right, the x acceleration value is positive.
When the device lies flat on a table, the acceleration value is +1.00 G or (+9.81 m/s^2), which corresponds to the acceleration of the device (0 m/s^2) minus the force of gravity (-9.81 m/s^2) and normalized as in G.
When the device lies flat on a table and is pushed toward the sky with an acceleration of A m/s^2, the acceleration value is equal to A+9.81 which corresponds to the acceleration of the device (+A m/s^2) minus the force of gravity (-9.81 m/s^2) and normalized in G.
Sensor Speed
- Fastest – Get the sensor data as fast as possible (not guaranteed to return on UI thread).
- Game – Rate suitable for games (not guaranteed to return on UI thread).
- Default – Default rate suitable for screen orientation changes.
- UI – Rate suitable for general user interface.
If your event handler is not guaranteed to run on the UI thread, and if the event handler needs to access user-interface elements, use the MainThread.BeginInvokeOnMainThread method to run that code on the UI thread.