Sensor Overview

Sensor Types

Sensors in OpenHarmony are an abstraction of underlying sensor hardware. Your application can access the underlying sensor hardware via the sensors. Using the Sensor APIs, you can query sensors on your device, subscribe to sensor data, customize algorithms based on sensor data, and develop various sensor-based applications, such as compass, motion-controlled games, and fitness and health applications.

Type Name Description Usage
ACCELEROMETER Acceleration sensor Measures the acceleration (including the gravity acceleration) applied to a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of m/s2. Detecting the motion status
ACCELEROMETER_UNCALIBRATED Uncalibrated acceleration sensor Measures the uncalibrated acceleration (including the gravity acceleration) applied to a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of m/s2. Measuring the acceleration bias estimation
LINEAR_ACCELERATION Linear acceleration sensor Measures the linear acceleration (excluding the gravity acceleration) applied to a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of m/s2. Detecting the linear acceleration in each axis
GRAVITY Gravity sensor Measures the gravity acceleration applied to a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of m/s2. Measuring the gravity
GYROSCOPE Gyroscope sensor Measures the rotation angular velocity of a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of rad/s. Measuring the rotation angular velocity
GYROSCOPE_UNCALIBRATED Uncalibrated gyroscope sensor Measures the uncalibrated rotation angular velocity of a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of rad/s. Measuring the bias estimation of the rotation angular velocity
SIGNIFICANT_MOTION Significant motion sensor Checks whether a device has a significant motion on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z). The value 0 means that the device does not have a significant motion, and 1 means the opposite. Detecting significant motions of a device
PEDOMETER_DETECTION Pedometer detection sensor Detects whether a user takes a step. The value can be 0 (the user does not take a step) or 1 (the user takes a step). Detecting whether a user takes a step
PEDOMETER Pedometer sensor Records the number of steps a user has walked. Providing the number of steps a user has walked
AMBIENT_TEMPERATURE Ambient temperature sensor Measures the ambient temperature, in the unit of degree Celsius (°C). Measuring the ambient temperature
MAGNETIC_FIELD Magnetic field sensor Measures the magnetic field on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of μT. Creating a compass
MAGNETIC_FIELD_UNCALIBRATED Uncalibrated magnetic field sensor Measures the uncalibrated magnetic field on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of μT. Measuring the magnetic field bias estimation
HUMIDITY Humidity sensor Measures the ambient relative humidity, in a percentage (%). Monitoring the dew point, absolute humidity, and relative humidity
BAROMETER Barometer sensor Measures the barometric pressure, in the unit of hPa or mbar. Measuring the barometric pressure
ORIENTATION Orientation sensor Measures the rotation angles of a device on three physical axes (X, Y, and Z), in the unit of rad. Providing the three orientation angles of the screen
ROTATION_VECTOR Rotation vector sensor Measures the rotation vector of a device. It is a composite sensor that generates data from the acceleration sensor, magnetic field sensor, and gyroscope sensor. Detecting the orientation of a device in the East, North, Up (ENU) Cartesian coordinate system
PROXIMITY Proximity sensor Measures the distance between a visible object and the device screen. Measuring the distance between a person and the device during a call
AMBIENT_LIGHT Ambient light sensor Measures the ambient light intensity of a device, in the unit of lux. Automatically adjusting the screen brightness and checking whether the screen is covered on the top
HEART_RATE Heart rate sensor Measures the heart rate of a user. Providing users' heart rate data
WEAR_DETECTION Wear detection sensor Checks whether a user is wearing a wearable device. Detecting wearables
HALL Hall effect sensor Detects a magnetic field around a device. Smart cover mode of the device

Working Principles

The following modules work cooperatively to implement OpenHarmony sensors: Sensor API, Sensor Framework, Sensor Service, and HDF layer.

Figure 1 How the sensor works

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  • Sensor API: provides APIs for performing basic operations on sensors, including querying the sensor list, subscribing to or unsubscribing from sensor data, and executing control commands. This module makes application development simpler.

  • Sensor Framework: manages sensor data subscription, creates and destroys data channels, subscribes to or unsubscribes from sensor data, and implements communication with the Sensor Service module.

  • Sensor Service: interacts with the HD_IDL module to receive, parse, and distribute data, manages foreground and background policies and sensors of a device, and controls sensor permissions.

  • HDF layer: selects proper policies based on the hardware first in first out (FIFO) and frequency, and adapts to different devices.

Constraints

To obtain data of the following sensors, you must request the required permissions.

Sensor Permission Sensitivity Permission Description
Acceleration sensor, uncalibrated acceleration sensor, and linear acceleration sensor ohos.permission.ACCELEROMETER system_grant Allows an application to subscribe to data of these acceleration-related sensors in the motion category.
Gyroscope sensor and uncalibrated gyroscope sensor ohos.permission.GYROSCOPE system_grant Allows an application to subscribe to data of the gyroscope-related sensors in the motion category.
Pedometer sensor ohos.permission.ACTIVITY_MOTION user_grant Allows an application to subscribe to the motion status.
Heart rate sensor ohos.permission.READ_HEALTH_DATA user_grant Allows an application to read health data.

The APIs for subscribing to and unsubscribing from sensor data work in pairs. If you do not need sensor data, call the unsubscription API to stop sensor data reporting.