Scientific Phone Appsand Mobile Devices

Ng et al. Scientific Phone Apps and Mobile Devices (2016) 2:5 DOI 10.1186/s41070-016-0008-3

APPLICATION NOTE Open Access

VibraTilt: Accelerometer & Gyroscopemeasurement app

Khairani Muhammad Ng1, Phi-Vu Nguyen1 and Samuel Ken-En Gan1,2*

Abstract

Smartphones doubling up as laboratory equipment are increasingly in demand for convenience and portability.VibraTilt is a free smartphone app with a simple interface on both the iOS and Android operating systems thatfunctions as both an accelerometer and a gyroscope. Leveraging on in-built sensors, the portable accelerometerbubble level can be used in labs to determine the tilt of surfaces. The gyroscope measures the rotation in three-directions-axes and their magnitude of change for calibrating equipment, measuring vibrations, stability oflaboratory equipment, and measuring tremors clinically. For setting thresholds and visualization, a graph showingthe change in the x, y and z values is incorporated in the Android version. Together with the customizable featureto record the number of shakes within a certain time frame, VibraTilt does more than unlock the smartphone todisplace two equipment in the laboratory, but can be used in a variety of purposes.

IntroductionReproducibility is an important criteria of experimentalresearch. As such, calibrated equipment and standar-dised measures are reported in experimental research ar-ticles. To ensure optimal conditions, additional devicesfor calibration or comparisons are extremely welcomed.With the widespread use of smartphones and mobile de-vices with multiple sensors, there is great potential forphones to be leveraged as research equipment themselves.They can function as the desired “second opinion” devices,and all that is required to unlock these potential are mo-bile apps (http://www.biospectrumasia.com/biospectrum/opinion/220592/use-smartphone-apps-biomedical-research).Mobile apps are now beginning to make an impact on re-search processes ranging from displacing equipmente.g.GelApp (Sim et al. 2015). Although a wide range ofscience-related apps have been created for aiding research,more remains to be done.Both the gyroscope and accelerometer are widely

used in scientific disciplines and daily life e.g. sports.Gyroscopes can be used to monitor earthquakes, precisionengineering processes, neurological tremors such asParkinson’s disease, or the stability of a process and ride

* Correspondence: samuelg@bii.a-star.edu.sg1Bioinformatics Institute, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research(A*STAR), Singapore 138671, Singapore2p53 Laboratory, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR),Singapore 138648, Singapore

© 2016 Ng et al. Open Access This article is diLicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bmedium, provided you give appropriate creditlicense, and indicate if changes were made.

(e.g. in protein crystallization processes and cell fusionprocedures). Accelerometers measure the tilt and levelled-ness of surfaces that are important for the construction in-dustry and sensitive cell seeding experiments or tilt-sensitive experiments in experimental laboratories. Whilethey are useful, devices with such capabilities are not com-monly available. Therefore, to address the need to makesuch devices more common for incorporation into theabove examples, VibraTilt was developed as a freeAndroid and iOS app to unlock the popular smartphoneto have these additional functions.Although there are numerous apps that unlock these

smartphone sensors, the distinguishing feature ofVibraTilt is the simple interface and the customizablethreshold, sensitivity, and time limit for “number ofshakes”. This allows VibraTilt to function at anotherlevel of use ranging from sports, clinical, precisionengineering, calibration, etc.

DevelopmentVibraTilt for Android was developed using version 4.4of the Eclispe Integrated Development Environment,Luna (https://eclipse.org/), as well as open source codefrom aChartEngine (http://www.achartengine.org/) forthe generation of logarithmic graphs.VibraTilt App for iOS was developed using version 6.3.2

of the Xcode Integrated Development Environment, utilis-ing open source libraries: RGB colour sliders (https://

stributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationaly/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anyto the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons

Fig. 1 Accelerometer Function. The accelerometer animation shows an animated bubble floating in a round half-sphere (left). When the phone/deviceis levelled, the bubble would be in the centre (centre). For better visualization, the colour of the liquid in the half-sphere can be changed (right)

Ng et al. Scientific Phone Apps and Mobile Devices (2016) 2:5 Page 2 of 3

github.com/eappel/RGBColorSlider) for changing thecolour of the accelerometer bubble.

Accelerometer functionVibraTilt measures the tilt of an object surface in theaccelerometer function. Tilting the phone moves theanimated bubble from the centre circle as seen in real

Fig. 2 Gyroscope Function. The gyroscope function measures the number(Android) can be used as a guide for specific activities (right)

weighing balances in laboratories. The app detects threetypes of tilt in the 3 axes of x, y, and z with values to adecimal point (Fig. 1). Should the smartphone requirere-calibration, pressing the “Calibrate” button sets thebubble to the centre and the axes values to “0”. Pressingthe “Reset” button restores the accelerometer back tofactory defaults. For visualization purposes, the colour of

of rotations past a set limit (left). For setting the limits, the graph

Ng et al. Scientific Phone Apps and Mobile Devices (2016) 2:5 Page 3 of 3

the circle can be changed with the “Colour” buttonwhich leads to a panel with three sliders correspondingto the RGB colour scheme (Fig. 1).

Gyroscope functionThe gyroscope function (see Fig. 2) allows users to de-fine the range of x, y, and z axes (measured in rad/smovements for measurement. The key unique featureof VibraTilt is the function to measure shakes in a setset time and threshold. For activity specific-parameters,users can set any number for a trial run and use thegraph function (available only on Android and limitedto measuring movements at every 10 milliseconds) todetermine the desired magnitude of the movement ofthe target activity. Once the limits are set, pressing the“Start” button initiates the countdown of the set timelimit and the number of rotations that exceed the de-fined rad/s. To end the measurement early, users canpress the “Stop” button at any time. In the graph panel(only in Android), users can view the rate of rotation,where the radians of the axes are plotted against time(Fig. 2 bottom right). For measuring fast movements, ahigh sensitivity option is also available (movements aremeasured every millisecond). However, this feature dis-ables the graph function due to the limitations ofcurrent smartphone processing capabilities for plottinghigh sensitivity data. For reports, screenshots can betaken at any point.

ApplicationsIn the experimental laboratory, VibraTilt can be used tomeasure the stability and angle of surfaces for calibrat-ing equipment and as a portable gyroscope for sensitiveexperiments. The key feature of measuring movementin a set time limit and magnitude allows the accelerom-eter function to do more than standardize shaking ex-periments, but also for neurological research involvingtremors and even gait (LeMoyne et al. 2010). Outsidethe experimental laboratory, VibraTilt can be used forexercise and leisure purposes (pedometer, measuringmobile phone vibrations, or for determining if a pieceof table/chair is tilted, etc).

ConclusionVibraTilt functions as both a gyroscope and an accel-erometer leveraging on the portability and conveni-ence of smartphones/tablets. With added functions tocalibrate, reset, and colour changes of the accelerom-eter together with the gyroscope measurement andgraph function, much can be done with VibraTilt. Infact, VibraTilt marks the first such apps that is genericenough for both scientific research use, as well as forleisure.

Availability and implementationVibraTilt (for Android and iOS) is freely available on theGoogle Play Store and Apple App Store as ‘VibraTilt’. Moredetails on the app can be found at www.facebook.com/APDLab.The ‘VibraTilt’ user guide is available at http://

tinyurl.com/VibraTilt and a video tutorial is also avail-able on the Google Play Store.The accuracy of the gyroscope and accelerometer is

dependent on the smartphone sensors, therefore varia-tions are expected when used on different devices.

Competing interestsThe authors declare no conflict of interest.

Authors’ contributionsKMN contributed to the manuscript, designed and made the app. PVNassisted in the graph and plotting aspect of the gyroscope. SKEG directedand conceived the idea of the app, as well as directed the writing of theapplication notes. All authors have read and approved the final version ofthe manuscript.

AcknowledgementsFunding: This work is funded by JCO1334i00050 grant, from the Joint CouncilOffice, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, Singapore. We thankMr. Iman Fahman for helping with the accelerometer layout, Mr Sim Jia Zhifor technical assistance, and Mr. Dillon Lim for his help in this app notepreparation.

Received: 23 November 2015 Accepted: 6 April 2016

ReferencesLeMoyne R, Mastroianni T, Cozza M, Coroian C, Grundfest W. Implementation of

an iPhone as a wireless accelerometer for quantifying gait characteristics. InEngineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 AnnualInternational Conference of the IEEE. pp. 3847-3851. IEEE.

Sim JZ, Nguyen PV, Lee HK, Gan SKE. “GelApp: Mobile gel electrophoresisanalyzer”. Nature Methods Application Notes. April 2015. doi:10.1038/an9643.

Use of Smartphone Apps for Biomedical Research - BioSpectrum Asia, 01-Jun-2015.[Online]. Available: http://www.biospectrumasia.com/biospectrum/opinion/220592/use-smartphone-apps-biomedical-research. Accessed 01 Jun 2015.

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