Our platform currently relies on Android-based cell phones for collecting and transmitting sensor data. While the various Android cell phones will largely share common capabilities (at least the ones that we rely on for this project), there may be some differences and our projects uses a variety of these devices. Below are the Android cell phones that we are actively using and who is responsible for them. Some of the cell phones have cellular service while some do not (we can still retrieve data from the ones without cellular service via a WiFi connection to our server or via a USB connection to the phone).

Our Hardware

• Lenovo Thinkserver, Fedora 19 x64
  • 2 x Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors @ 2.16GHz, each
  • 24GB RAM
  • 4 x 250GB HDD, RAID 5
• HP ProLiant Blade Server, Fedora 19 x64
  • 2 x Eight-Core AMD Processors @ 2.60 GHz, each
  • 34GB RAM
• Fitbit Ultra (2) - Click here to learn how we use them
• Zeyphr HxM
  • A bluetooth sensor that delivers heart rate, speed, and distance to supported smartphone fitness applications About Our Hardware

Mobile Sensors

Accelerometers and Electronic Compasses

Some general information on accelerometers is available below:

• A Beginner's Guide to Accelerometers, by Dimension Engineering, LLC (2009)
• Accelerometers and How They Work by Texas Instruments (2009)
• Wikipedia entry for accelerometers


• The Bosch Sensortec's 3-axis BMA150 is used for the HTC Hero.
• The T-Mobile G1 Specs shows that is uses an AKM #AK89761 6-Axis Electronic Compass.
• Apple uses an LIS302DL accelerometer in its iPhone, iPod Touch, and 4th and 5th generation iPod Nano.
• The Asahi Kasei's AK8973 digital compass is used in the HTC Hero as well as in newer iPhones.