Thread: N900 Specifications
View Single Post
pycage's Avatar
pycage is offline pycage
2009-09-15 , 09:06
Posts: 3,404 | Thanked: 4,474 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ Germany
#269
Originally Posted by shadowjk View Post
How useful is a digital compass anyway? i've had a few watches with digital compasses, and they required calibration to work at all, and even then they were nearly useless
A compass is required for augmented reality. To determine where your device is looking at requires 3 dimensions:

- GPS: your location on the world
- Accelerometer: the angle you're holding the device
- Compass: the direction you're looking at

To see this in action, you could try Google Skymap on Android phones. You hold your phone against the starry sky and see the names of the constellations you're pointing at on screen.
 

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to pycage For This Useful Post: