Thread: Vibration Analysis on Android

Dear all,

This is my final year project, I got to be honest, mobile development is new to me (I'm mostly experienced with C programming on MCUs) but I want to learn and develop my skills in this field.

I want to develop a Vibration Analysis application. I want to use it to measure the vibration in an Elevator so one can analyze the riding comfort.

First, the phone will be put on the flooring in the middle of the cabin, the measurement should be along the Elevator's total travel (up to 1min ride) and at least following to 2 axis (X and Y, if I can measure following Z too, it will be great). Once those data are captured during this 1min, I want to plot them on a separate graphs (first graph: X position vs time, second graph: Y position vs time). Also, I might add the feature of measuring the elevator speed while traveling inside the cabin.

My questions are:

1- Can I get the data that I want only from the accelerometer? or I should use the gyroscope and the digital campus as well?
2- Can the accelerometer (on Samsung Note 2 for example) detect small vibrations? like ones that occurs in an elevator (around 15 m-g)

I want to know how hard can this project be, and if it's feasible or not. Any help will be much appreciated.

Many Thanks

In my experiences the accelerometer is pretty twitchy. What I mean is the value you get jumps around quiet a bit when you hold it steady in your hand and it's accurate enough to detect and count footsteps when the phone is in your pocket. Weather or not this is accurate enough for your needs will depend on the device.

It seems like a good candidate for a prototype. If it were me I would write a quick app that just displays the raw data from the accelerometer and test it out on a good elevator and a bad one to determine if it's feasible with the devices capabilities. I'm inclined to think it won't be accurate enough for tiny vibrations but I've underestimated how good these mobile sensors are before.

Take a look at Sensor Overviews and be aware that different devices have different sensors.