Everyone should know that smartphones, watches and mobile devices have built-in barometric pressure sensors, but we are still unfamiliar with air pressure sensors. Literally, a pressure sensor is used to measure air pressure, but what is the purpose of measuring air pressure for the average cell phone user?
Let’s begin to understand！
Table of Contents
Altitude Measurement
For those who like to climb mountains, they will be very concerned about the altitude they are at. There are 2 common ways to measure altitude, one is by GPS, the other is by measuring the atmospheric pressure and then calculate the altitude based on the pressure value.
Due to technical and other constraints, there is usually an error of about 10 meters in GPS altitude calculations, and if you are in a forest or under a cliff, you may not even be able to receive GPS satellite signals.
The air pressure method has a wider range of options and can keep the cost lower. On the basis of the original mobile phone GPS and then add the function of air pressure sensor, so that the stereo positioning is more accurate.
Navigational Aid
Nowadays, many drivers use cell phone to navigate, however, some people often complain that the navigation on viaducts is often wrong. For example, when you are on a viaduct, the GPS says to turn right, but in fact there is no right turn exit on the right side, this is mainly because the GPS can not determine whether you are above or below the bridge and thus causing the wrong navigation. Generally, the height of the upper and lower levels of the viaduct will have a distance of a few meters to more than ten meters, and the error of the GPS may be a few tens of meters, so it is understandable that the above things happen.
If there is a pressure sensor in the cell phone, it is different, its accuracy can be 1 meter error, so it can be very good to assist the GPS to measure the altitude of the location, the problem of wrong navigation will be easy to solve.
Indoor Positioning
Since GPS signals are not well received indoors, when we enter a thick building, the built-in sensors may lose the satellite signals, so the user’s geographic location cannot be recognized and the vertical height cannot be sensed. However, if the cell phone is equipped with air pressure sensor and accelerometer, gyroscope and other technologies, it can achieve accurate indoor positioning. In the future, when shopping in the mall, you can use your cell phone to locate the product you want to buy in the mall in that location, which floor.
In addition, barometric pressure sensors can also provide fishing enthusiasts with relevant information (fish stratification and activity in the water is related to atmospheric pressure) or weather forecasts and other functions. However, the air pressure sensor is still in a neglected state, air pressure sensor to be more people understand and use still need some related technology maturity and popularization, as well as more developers for this sensor to introduce more applications and related functions.
