Several Applications of Acceleration Sensors

An accelerometer is an electronic device that can measure acceleration. Acceleration is the force exerted on an object during acceleration. There are two types of accelerometers: one is an angular accelerometer, which is an improvement on a gyroscope. The other is a linear accelerometer. It can also be divided into single-axis, dual-axis and tri-axis accelerometers according to the measuring axis. Now, accelerometers are widely used in game control, handle vibration and shaking, automobile brake start detection, earthquake detection, engineering vibration measurement, geological exploration, vibration testing and analysis, and security vibration reconnaissance. Here are a few examples to give you a better understanding of accelerometers.
Game control
Accelerometers can detect changes in the inclination angle up, down, left and right, so it is very simple to control the direction of objects in the game by tilting the handheld device forward and backward.
Automatic image flip
Use an accelerometer to detect the rotation and direction of the handheld device to realize the rotation of the image to be displayed.
Electronic compass tilt correction
Magnetic sensors determine the direction by measuring the magnitude of magnetic flux. When the magnetic sensor is tilted, the geomagnetic flux passing through the magnetic sensor will change, causing errors in the direction pointing. Therefore, if the electronic compass is not equipped with tilt correction, the user needs to place it horizontally. The principle that the accelerometer can measure the inclination angle can be used to compensate for the tilt of the electronic compass.
Compensation of the blind spot of the GPS navigation system
The GPS system finally determines the orientation of the object by receiving signals from three satellites distributed at 120 degrees. In some special occasions and landforms, such as tunnels, tall buildings, and jungle areas, the GPS signal will become weak or even completely lost, which is the so-called blind spot. By adding an accelerometer and the inertial navigation that we used to use, the system dead zone can be measured. Integrating the accelerometer once becomes the speed change per unit time, thereby measuring the movement of the object in the dead zone.
Pedometer function
The accelerometer can detect AC signals and the vibration of objects. When people walk, they will produce certain regular vibrations, and the accelerometer can detect the zero crossing point of the vibration, thereby calculating the number of steps taken by the person or the number of steps taken by the person when running, thereby calculating the displacement of the person. And using a certain formula, the calorie consumption can be calculated.
Anti-shake function
Use the accelerometer to detect the vibration/shake amplitude of the handheld device. When the vibration/shake amplitude is too large, the camera shutter is locked to ensure that the captured image is always clear.
Flash message function
By waving the handheld device, text can be displayed in the air. Users can write the displayed text themselves. This flash message function uses the phenomenon of visual persistence and uses the accelerometer to detect the waving cycle to achieve accurate positioning of the displayed text.
Hard disk protection
Use the accelerometer to detect the free fall state, so as to implement necessary protection for the mini hard disk. As we all know, when the hard disk reads data, the distance between the magnetic head and the disk is very small. Therefore, slight vibration from the outside will have very bad consequences on the hard disk and cause data loss. The accelerometer can detect the free fall state. When the free fall state is detected, the magnetic head is reset to reduce the damage to the hard disk.
With the application of MEMS technology in the field of sensors, the size of the accelerometer can be made smaller, and the performance is higher. This has greatly promoted its application in the field of consumer electronics, and its market share is also increasing every year.