My Latest Tool

Post date: 09-Mar-2013 00:07:01

I recently purchased a device that combines the following tools into a single tool: 

• Compass 

• Clinometer 

• Decibel meter 

• Flashlight 

• Bubble level 

• GPS 

• Video camera 

• Stills camera 

This is my new Apple iPhone. With the advent of electronic devices taking over many of these functions anyway, and mobile phones becoming more general purpose devices, it was perhaps inevitable that the two converged. 

The advantage that smart phones have over standard mobile phones is that they have the capacity to add programs to them. The iPhone provides a collection of basic electronic components, such as accelerometers, digital compass, LED light and so on. Software developers can then take advantage of these devices to write applications and make them useful. 

Many of the later phones are providing these internal devices, but the Apple iPhone has lots of applications starting to take advantage of them. For example, whilst looking for an application for a compass, I came across at least 15 different versions, each offering something a bit different, or a better look, more accuracy, better price and so forth. In these pages are a few photos of my phone using a range of these applications. 

Decibel Meter

The iPhone has accelerometers for detecting movement in all three dimensions, although I am not entirely sure how they are used to convert that motion into an angle. Most of them require you to calibrate the device, usually by placing it on a flat surface and tapping a button. 

The better ones calibrate each dimension twice, having you turn the phone through 180 degrees for each dimension that you are calibrating. The bubble level is very accurate, and I have one application that can show angles of incline on two different dimensions in a single display. It allows you to freeze the display so that you can take a reading, as well as record a series of movements for later viewing. 

The GPS uses a combination of technologies, including distance from cell towers and assisted GPS (A-GPS) which uses a network based service when satellites are not available. I have found it at times to be accurate to within a couple of metres, and generally not much more than 20 or so. 

The digital compass uses a magnetometer that detects the earth's magnetic field in three dimensions and uses this, together with the GPS and the accelerometers to assist in detecting your direction. It does not work well in certain environments, such as inside the steel can that is your car. This is only to be expected. Outdoors, or even in the house, I have found it to be reasonably accurate. 

GPS With Compass and Altimeter

The decibel meter is quite useful, and uses the standard phone microphones. It also provides you with a small chart showing what different decibel levels represent. The LED that is used for the flash in the camera can also be turned on as a small flashlight, and can be set to strobe at different rates if you want to really annoy people. 

Whether or not you would ever consider using these in a professional setting is another point, but the best part is that I have them with me all the time. It also doubles up as a phone, music player, photo album, book reader (with all of the last three years of Benchmarks loaded), photo scanner, calculator, Internet web browser, email reader, and map of the entire planet, camera, video camera and voice recorder. 

After a while it becomes a bit hard to do without. The downside is that, unlike many of the tools that it replaces, we probably won't be collecting them in 50 or 100 years from now.

Reprinted from November 2010. Note that I have since upgraded to a new phone. The current one also does panorama photos, such as the ones seen at the top of most of the pages in this website.