Vlog: Nokia N95 Accelerometer Demonstration
I made a short video showing the Nokia N95’s accelerometer. After months of owning the Nokia N95, I’m surprised this phone had it! You might be familiar with this technology from watching the iPhone commercials where the screen automatically changes when you hold it sideways. This is such a cool feature, I don’t understand why Nokia haven’t fully integrated it with the phone yet. Check out the video.
Video Formats: M4V (Original 640×480 resolution), MP4 (download on your Nseries phone), or YouTube.
Testing the accelerometer comes in the form of MovingBall, a software plug-in developed by Nokia. It does nothing else other than move the ball when you tilt the phone. I’m really surprised how responsive it is. It also knows when you shake the phone.
Download MovingBall if you want to try it out yourself.
A program that will take advantage of this technology is RotateMe 2.0 which should be coming out soon. Zach from Symbian in Motion expects RotateMe 2.0 at the end of November. It will add an auto-rotate feature ‘a la iPhone’ that will be compatible only with the Nokia N95.
man, you got the Jawbone 2? nniiiicee...i was thinking about getting it, but the first one works fine for me. ...
pretty cool idea! 
you can change it in the clock application. 
from where can i buy this one for 70$??? 
This problem is solved. It was something wrong with connection, but new problem has appeared. When I click on the ...
how do I change the Date? 
i knew the Battery was going to be ok, i bought a N95 8GB and before that i used a ...
wow shes pretty, i love it when cool girls advertise products epically phones, the adverts actually work, lolll mannnnnn i ...
Will Feature pack 9.3 apps be compatible with 9.2? Because mostly I only see S60V2 or S60V3 in app description, ...
Zach on 31 October 2007:
You beat me to it! lol
It’s funny that before the rotateMe vid I had no idea that the N95 even had an accelerometer, let alone a pretty decent one…
Btw do you have to install the plug-in before the ball demo will work? I installed it first so I don’t know and I only mention it because I only see the one file linked above.
Mark Guim on 31 October 2007:
@Zach I only installed one file, which is the one I linked to above. It is pretty decent! I wonder what kind of apps will use this feature.
Stefan Constantinescu on 31 October 2007:
mark, can you please enable embedding for the youtube video?
Mark Guim on 31 October 2007:
@stefan Should be embeddable now.
Zach on 31 October 2007:
Ah - I wonder what weird dev tool I installed then
It’s definitely responsive - supports 28 values from what I can gather. To be honest, I’m VERY surprised that there aren’t already a whole bunch of apps out there that make use of the accelerometer. Even more surprising is that the only thing Nokia uses it for as far as I can tell is image orientation - That’s crazy! The “cool stuff” that their demoing on S60 Touch could easily already exist on the N95 (for example - flipping the phone over to kill/snooze an alarm, shaking the phone to trigger a response, etc)…
ARJW on 31 October 2007:
This is indeed some interesting news. I wonder if the Accelerometer can detect a bit more than just the orientation. Because that video of turning the phone over to silence would be a neat feature if the Accelerometer was a part of it.
As for why other apps don’t take advantage of it, besides the camera and browser, only games and specailty apps really benefit from it.
Zach on 31 October 2007:
@ARJW Oh I totally disagree with that. There are plenty of different ways that the integrated apps and third party apps could integrate with the accelerometer. The alarm and rotateMe are just two great examples but if you get creative there are plenty of possibilities. With an accelerometer that supports 28 values you could easily control all kind of functions with gestures - a simple flip of the wrist in one direction or the other to cycle images in the gallery forward or back, turn the phone face down to pause video playback in a media player, a gentle shake of the device for one second to mute an incoming call, etc etc…
Mark Guim on 31 October 2007:
@Zach those are all really cool features that I’d wanna see! I still can’t believe this just pop out of nowhere even when this phone has been available for some time.
A Nokia tv commercial showing those “gestures” will definitely grab some attention.
Zach on 31 October 2007:
@Mark Definitely! I noticed something else that’s pretty cool and also telling about the capabilities of the n95’s accelerometer. Open the ball demo and hold the phone horizontally with the screen facing straight up away from the ground. Now shake the phone up and down.
Now something possibly troubling about Nokia’s implementation: Put your phone in landscape mode and play with the ball demo. It seems even the Nokia developers who created the demo either couldn’t (or didn’t) code it well enough to accomodate both screen modes, or there is a bigger oversight in the phone’s design. I hope it’s not the latter!
NET9 on 1 November 2007:
This is a truly revolutionary discovery. I can only begin to imagine the possibilities of what this could be used for. Can’t wait to see what great ideas develop around this awesome N95 feature. Chalk one more up on the “things the N95 can do” list. It’s going to be a very good future for mobile indeed.
N95-1 on 1 November 2007:
news like this really puzzle me..
like many of you alreday said, HOW IN THE WORLD is it possible that such a cool feature was not known and used already by the S60 community/deveolpers from the beginning of the N95?!?
hello? making HUGE amounts of money, anyone?? can you imagine how many tousand users will just buy a feature like the autorotator? how about a d-pad emulator that runs in the background as a servivce? racing games? ths list is endless..
in contrast, did you notice how ultra-fast first demos were deveoped for the iphone? was the API for this just yet released by nokia or what?? will someone please explain this to me? c’mon, i mean, really…
deejaysonic on 1 November 2007:
Wahay
Somebody please write apps with this sensory thingy !! How about (as already mentioned) alarms, photos, web scrolling, contacts, picture viewing, games, applications, music and video controls, etc, etc, etc !!!
Tili on 7 November 2007:
A big question in my mind is whether it is a 3D accelerometer or 2D. Can it detect alititude also? Sadly, I don’t have N95 to check myself.
Zach on 7 November 2007:
It’s 3D
Jordi on 7 November 2007:
Hi!
I think that the reason of the existence of accelerometer in N95 was the feature of the videocamera: Stabilizer.
When you record a video, you can use this feature, and a accelerometer is the key.
I think….
Good nigth!
Emiel Florijn on 8 November 2007:
Maybe they didnt release this function untill the launch of the N-gage2.0 platform.. maybe there will be a ton of games already in the making that use this device for controlling, wouldnt surprise me at all because controlling games on mobile devices was an issue before.. and no one
anonimous on 9 November 2007:
All that you want is done, look at http://www.bysamir.fr/ and there you could see the new rotateme that works as iphone but with the N95 and the most amazing is the nokmote, there is a video demo playing with the sensor of the N95, it´s amazing!!
Jean-Pierre on 10 November 2007:
Nice Gadget,hope it will also work on my N95-8GB.
BTW where did you get the music you used in your demo?
Grtz
Mike Bowen on 10 November 2007:
This phone gets better by the day. I wonder how many other technologies are hidden, only to be discovered when Nokia thinks it’s the right time.
The moving ball is brilliant, and this opens the doors for so many things. It’s fantastic to think that the many sheep out there will flock to get the iPhone, when the Nokia N95 offers so much more.
Chris on 15 November 2007:
Only recently got an N95. Also a new Mondeo with built in Bluetooth and they don’t work together. Nokia say it’s Fords problem. They even have a web poage about it. nokia.com/ford - see compatibility - No N95!!!
Any suggestions guys. Like the Ford. Like the N95 don’t want to change either but need phone and car to communicate.
Andy on 14 January 2008:
I’ve blogged about the n95 accelerometer - some good applications available! I do wonder what the iPhone has to offer in the way of ‘fun’ applications / accelerometer!?
Andy on 22 January 2008:
RotateMe is rather cool too!
View My Post
chop on 23 January 2008:
I love the rotateme and the nokmote is still in the developing stages( but its still great). The Flip Silent works wonders when i wanna be left alone at times lol. I dont know what the accelerometer’s sole purpose was in the N95, but thank god for it.
skelg on 18 February 2008:
i cant install any of these great apps on my n95. why? first i install the accelerometer plug-in then the rotate me v2.0 but it will say contact the author or something. can anyone help?
Joff on 2 March 2008:
Feel a bit like a simpleton: i can’t seem to get RotateMe to install on my N95 8gb, I’ve tried changing the application manager menu thingy to allow all applications not just signed ones but it comes up with a message saying “certificate error: contact application supplier” Has anyone else had this problem and how can i sort it? I really want RotateMe, it looks cool!
ro0s on 29 March 2008:
hi!! i have the same problem as joff!!
and i really want it !! what can i do ??
Karlo Medallo on 30 March 2008:
@Zach Quote “…It seems even the Nokia developers who created the demo either couldn’t (or didn’t) code it well enough to accomodate both screen modes, or there is a bigger oversight in the phone’s design. I hope it’s not the latter!”
Moving Ball Developers(Ole Kirkeby, Markus Kähäri and Ykä Huhtala) made a simple demo and hard coded the screen dimension as seen in the program’s source code.
Name : MovingBallAppView.cpp
Author : Ole Kirkeby, Markus Kähäri and Ykä Huhtala
Copyright : Copyright Nokia
Description : Application view implementation
—snip—
// CONSTANTS
const TInt KScreenWidth = 240;
const TInt KScreenHeight = 234;
const TInt KScreenCenterX = KScreenWidth >> 1;
const TInt KScreenCenterY = KScreenHeight >> 1;
const TInt KBallRadius = 20; // average radius of ball, in pixels
—snip—
from:
http://research.nokia.com/files/MovingBall_Source_Codes.zip
serk01 on 15 April 2008:
Check this and give me your impressions. Soon to be released!
http://serk01.wordpress.com/software/pyacceleremoter/
Matty on 12 May 2008:
i put the acceleremoter on my phone, i now have the moving ball and lightsaber and spaceinvaders game, i cant wait to get the nokmote and rotate me signed and uploaded onto my N95
Sirmilton on 28 May 2008:
Mobile Accelerometer is the future of mobile apps, Its absolutely amazing what can be achieved with a few hours worth of designing. Check out this wallpaper with accelerometer feature, that Chris, our resident mobile developer and designer did for a bit of fun. you can download it for free at http://www.welovemobile.co.uk/blog/?p=119
Cheers
mauri on 31 May 2008:
wow this is an impresive feature but it is also integrated in the n95 8gb? and if it was since the begining why nokia don’t use it for a commercial or for publicity it would defenetly beat the iphoneand why they don’t tell us!!!!!!
the impresive thing is, what more can be integrated in that phone that we still don’t know?
Lord Draven on 10 June 2008:
Can someone PLEASE write an application for the N95 and the accelerometer that mimics a Lightsaber?
Mark Guim on 11 June 2008:
@Draven here’s a lightsaber for your N95.
NgocLuu on 11 June 2008:
Will it work on N82? Have anyone tried?
Lord Draven on 11 June 2008:
Absolute Genius. Cheers.
Vend on 11 July 2008:
It will work on N82! I´ve tried!
Matty on 17 July 2008:
I have the N95, ive got the accelerometer installed and i have the nokmote, rotate me, moving ball, lightsaber, flip silent and also shake sms app on my phone, i can visit any website i want, use IM with my email, play hundreds of songs, watch DVDs, record DVD quality videos and do anything i would use a computer for. gotta be the best thing out so far =P
Smasher on 21 July 2008:
The n78 us the best phone in the world without a Doubt ! Anyone know if i can get this Acellero gigga ma thingy on my phone….better hurry Up!
spider-man on 21 July 2008:
Matty - on the off chance you’re keeping track of new posts to this page, where and how did you get working versions of [in particular] nokmote and rotate me ?? cheers
Matty on 22 July 2008:
well 1st u need the accelermoter..of corse, but then i searched for the apps on a website called mosh, if uve not heard of it then google it, its like a search engine for phones. i just dowloaded a few versions of each app and got them signed using a program called GenialSIS which i found after spending hours looking for. once i had this i could send off for each app to be signed. also, if the nokmote interests you theres allways the RockNScroll app which bassicly does the same thing. i shall try findin the links to the correct apps and GenialSIS and when i do ill post them on here
spider-man on 23 July 2008:
that’s great Matty thanks look forward to hearing from you - particularly rockNscroll