In browsing through some of the usual sites that I visit (MSMobiles.com, WMPowerUser.com, PocketNow.com, and WMExperts.com) I've seen a story repeated about Microsoft releasing a unified API for accessing the sensors and accelerometers in Windows Mobile devices. I can't help but get the feeling that something was misinterpreted when this story was created. The stories seem to be based on a description for one of the TechEd sessions being presented by Nicholas "Action" Landry. The description for the TechEd session is as follows:
WMB304 Make Some Magic! Shake, Flip and Flick Your Application for Windows Mobile 6.5!
Nickolas Landry
The world of mobility has evolved. While keypads, stylus, and keyboards are all good and fine for device input, newer input methods have been popularized in recent years, such as accelerometers, touch screen gestures, capacitive touch screens, light sensors, and such. More than just gadgets and gimmicks, these next-generation input methods allow you, the mobile developer, to offer the best interface possible to your users on the road, enhancing their device experience. This session explores various input methods available on some of the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 devices and how to programmatically leverage them using managed APIs from Microsoft .NET Compact Framework-based applications. Topics covered include working with the Windows Mobile Unified Sensor API to access hardware sensors, controlling device cameras using the Windows Mobile SDK, capturing stylus and finger gestures on touch screens, detecting ambient light, making your device vibrate and sound-off, and more.
The thing to be emphasized here is the "Windows Mobile Unified Sensor AP." What is that? if you search for that exact phrase in your favorite search engine the top results will include the "Windows Mobile Unified Sensor API" on the codeplex, a blog entry by Loke Uei Tan of Microsoft, another blog entry by Rob Camer of Microsoft, and most importantly a blog entry by Koushik Dutta, the original author of the API. I think what has happened here is that a hasty conclusion has been made based on the description of the TechEd session. I sent a tweet over to @wmdev and got confirmation back that the sensor API being discussed here was in fact about the same code that Koushik had uploaded. There is no unified API coming from Microsoft. That being said, currently the only company that supports access to their accelerometers is Samsung through their SDK (I've blogged about this before. It is available at http://innovator.samsungmobile.com ).
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