Barometers In iPhones Mean More Crowdsourcing In Weather Forecasts

cryptoz (878581) writes Apple is now adding barometers to its mobile devices: both new iPhones have valuable atmospheric pressure sensors being used for HealthKit (step counting). Since many Android devices have been carrying barometers for years, scientists like Cliff Mass have been using the sensor data to improve weather forecasts. Open source data collection projects like PressureNet on Android automatically collect and send the atmospheric sensor data to researchers.

Comments

And?

[blueshift_1]

Is this a suprise? I felt like this is a pretty obvious one. I mean, a newsworthy article would be that Apple would then use this data to induce mass climate change and natural disasters where there is a low density of Apple users to increase their market share.

I wish I could read

[CO_gun_toter]

I read the lead in three times, each time reading HeaLthKit as HeathKit. I must be officailly an old fart...

Re:I wish I could read

[ColdWetDog]

Presbyopia and Helvetica. A miserable combination.

Getting old is not for the weak.

Re:haha

[Wookact]

Apples reality distortion field. Remember, its not useful until apple does it, and then once apple does it, it becomes innovation.

Re:Thus we can settle the debate.

[jshackney]

Hmm. For work I spend the majority of my time at an approximate cabin altitude of 5,000 to 7,000 feet. I guess my data won't be very meaningful.

Re:haha

[iluvcapra]

"Innovation" mostly has to do with getting people to buy or use something -- actually being the first person to invent or market the thing doesn't really carry any intrinsic benefit, follow-through and execution always trump good ideas. Ideas are cheap.

--- Signed, Ignaz Semmelweiss, Elija Gray, the Lumiere Brothers, Preston Tucker, Douglas Engelbart, Xerox PARC, inter alia

Barometers In iPhones!

[JohnStock]

Remember Barometers In iPhones.. that's iPhones.. remember Barometers In iPhones.... Smallprint: oh yeah, Android had them for years

High frequency pressure waves

[nadaou]

If you get the chance to monitor the barometer at high frequency there are a couple neat atmospheric phenomena which you can observe.

The shockwaves which preceed an oncoming strong front or thunderstorm are especially cool to watch.

What for?

[Ksevio]

I know my android device has a barometer, but I can't seem to figure out why. Sure it's kind of neat to be able to see the pressure graphed over time, but I don't think it's a big selling point on devices. Is it just a side effect of some other hardware that makes it easy to implement or something?

Re:What for?

[Anonymous Coward]

It can help GPS fixes be acquired faster. Barometers provide a rough estimate of altitude and can aid GPS fixes. See https://plus.google.com/+DanMorrill/posts/jVJhPyouWDP

Re:What for?

[stephanruby]

Actually, the barometer on my phone is pretty good. Absent a radical atmospheric change, it roughly knows when I've climbed one floor in an elevator for instance. I doubt that the gyroscope sensors could be giving it this level of information. In any case, by itself this information is almost useless, but when correlated with other data points from other sensors, that's when application developers could use that information to infer much more useful information.

For instance, with this kind of information, a car navigation app might be able to realize more quickly that you didn't take the on-ramp you were supposed to take. Or it could infer that you made it halfway through a tunnel. Or it could tell you on what floor you've parked your car (assuming, it could calculate out the atmospheric information it could obtain from other sources). Etc. The same goes for health apps. Walking on a flat surface vs. walking uphill makes a world of difference in the number of calories you're burning. I personally very much doubt that the cheap pedometers you can get at the local drugstore for less than 10 dollars can tell the difference between a flat surface and uphill.

Re:Thus we can settle the debate.

[ColdWetDog]

No, it and of itself won't be meaningful. That's the crowdsource bit.

OK, for all of you that stare at the weatherperson and wonder what the funny lines are for: The column of air just above your head and extending to the top of the atmosphere has a mass that depends on a number of details. This fluctuates from minute to minute and, in fact, occurs in waves (those funny lines). Detailed information about the barometric pressure at any given location and time can be sent to a central station where that data is collected and displayed. The more (accurate) sensors that you have, the better detail and, presumably, the better quality of weather (not climate) forecasting.

Having lots of barometric pressure measurements attached to a device that can accurately determine location and time can be a useful source of data. For the National Weather Service, the National Security Agency and other fun TLAs. The utility for the weather service is obvious, for the NSA not so much but I believe it has to do with overall conductivity of aluminum foil, or something along those lines.

Re:haha

[iluvcapra]

Her brother is the Kwisatz Haderach...

Re:iOS and OSX

[ColdWetDog]

Now with even less privacy!!!

They can already triangulate you anyway based off cell tower data, along with any number of phone-home apps that you joyfully agreed to the EULA.

Even I'm not seeing a privacy correlation between barometric pressure and YOU (adjusts tin-foil hat)

Now they can tell how high you are.

Re:haha

[Karlt1]

That would be true if Android phones weren't YEARS ahead of Apple phones in terms of technology

Which technology would that be? Definitely not processor technology.