Xoom in on weather with Motorola tablet

SAN FRANCISCO

INSTEAD of checking with the weatherman if you need an umbrella, how about turning to your tablet or smartphone for real-time information?

This will be possible with the growing use of special sensors built into upcoming devices.

For instance, the Xoom, Motorola Mobility’s latest tablet expected to go on sale this spring, has a tiny barometer under its hood, CNN Tech reported.

Barometers are used by meteorologists to measure atmospheric pressure and predict the severity of oncoming storms. For example, a fall in pressure means a higher chance of rain.

In the latest version of its Android mobile operating system, Google also added the ability to recognise and use a barometer.

Besides the ability to predict the weather, new phones and tablets slated to hit the market will also be fitted with sensors to do a variety of things, CNN
Tech said.

Accelerometers and ambient-light sensors – both found in many smartphones and tablets – can tell how one is holding the device and adjust the screen’s brightness accordingly, based on the light in the room.

Apple deployed a gyroscope in the iPhone 4, which allows it to detect more accurately the handset’s orientation. This is useful for games on the device, said Apple. The Xoom and Google’s Nexus S phone also have gyroscopes.

There are also fitness apps that use sensors to track altitude, a vital element for bikers and runners when they move uphill or work out at higher altitudes.

Barometers already exist in some handheld GPS devices and digital watches from Casio. They are used mainly by hikers to determine how high up the mountain they are, or by meteorology enthusiasts who like to graph the changes in atmospheric pressure, said CNN Tech.

Although weather experts feel that the met station is still the best source for weather forecasts, the collective use of mobile barometers could yield scientific results.

This is because the planet is full of small areas that can be rainier or colder than the places surrounding them, and “largerscale weather forecasters miss a lot of them”, Dr Eugene Cordero, a meteorology professor at
San Jose State University, told CNN Tech.

If every smartphone and tablet had a barometer inside, the data collected could be transmitted to weather organisations to better predict storms in certain areas, he said.

Source: www.mypaper.com.sg