Compass in Android

Question

I am trying to program a compass with Android using the accelorometer and the magnetic field sensor, now I am wondering how to get the correct angle for my compass.

I read in the values of the accelerometer and of the magnetic field sensor in "accele", and "magne" respectively. To get the angle, I perform the following:

float R[] = new float[9];
float I[] = new float[9];
boolean success = SensorManager.getRotationMatrix(R, I, accele, magne);
        if(success) {
            float orientation[] = new float[3];
            SensorManager.getOrientation(R, orientation);
            azimuth = orientation[0]; // contains azimuth, pitch, roll
                            ....

Later on, I use a rotation matrix to put my needle:

rotation.setRotate(azimuth, compass.getWidth() / 2, compass.getHeight() / 2);
canvas.drawBitmap(needle, rotation, null);

Now, the documentation of getOrientation says, that orientation[0] should be the rotation around the z-axis. The documentation for TYPE_ORIENTATION states that "Azimuth, angle between the magnetic north direction and the y-axis, around the z-axis (0 to 359). 0=North, 90=East, 180=South, 270=West".

My azimuth however is not between 0 and 359, but rather around -2 to 2. What exactly is the azimuth from getOrientation and how can I convert it to an angle?

Answer 1

Use the following to convert from the given azimuth in radians (-PI, +PI) to degrees (0, 360)

float azimuthInRadians = orientation[0];
float azimuthInDegress = (float)Math.toDegrees(azimuthInRadians);
if (azimuthInDegress < 0.0f) {
    azimuthInDegress += 360.0f;
}

variable names used for convenience ;-)

Answer 2

A code snippet could be got from https://github.com/iutinvg/compass

It does not use deprecated stuffs, applies low-pass filter.

Answer 3

I found this in the google's ApiDemos:

    /*
 * Copyright (C) 2007 The Android Open Source Project
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package com.example.android.apis.graphics;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.*;
import android.hardware.SensorListener;
import android.hardware.SensorManager;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;
import android.os.SystemClock;
import android.util.Config;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;

public class Compass extends GraphicsActivity {

    private static final String TAG = "Compass";

    private SensorManager mSensorManager;
    private SampleView mView;
    private float[] mValues;

    private final SensorListener mListener = new SensorListener() {

        public void onSensorChanged(int sensor, float[] values) {
            if (Config.LOGD) Log.d(TAG, "sensorChanged (" + values[0] + ", " + values[1] + ", " + values[2] + ")");
            mValues = values;
            if (mView != null) {
                mView.invalidate();
            }
        }

        public void onAccuracyChanged(int sensor, int accuracy) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub

        }
    };

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
        super.onCreate(icicle);
        mSensorManager = (SensorManager)getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
        mView = new SampleView(this);
        setContentView(mView);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume()
    {
        if (Config.LOGD) Log.d(TAG, "onResume");
        super.onResume();
        mSensorManager.registerListener(mListener, 
                SensorManager.SENSOR_ORIENTATION,
                SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_GAME);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStop()
    {
        if (Config.LOGD) Log.d(TAG, "onStop");
        mSensorManager.unregisterListener(mListener);
        super.onStop();
    }

    private class SampleView extends View {
        private Paint   mPaint = new Paint();
        private Path    mPath = new Path();
        private boolean mAnimate;
        private long    mNextTime;

        public SampleView(Context context) {
            super(context);

            // Construct a wedge-shaped path
            mPath.moveTo(0, -50);
            mPath.lineTo(-20, 60);
            mPath.lineTo(0, 50);
            mPath.lineTo(20, 60);
            mPath.close();
        }

        @Override protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
            Paint paint = mPaint;

            canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE);

            paint.setAntiAlias(true);
            paint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
            paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);

            int w = canvas.getWidth();
            int h = canvas.getHeight();
            int cx = w / 2;
            int cy = h / 2;

            canvas.translate(cx, cy);
            if (mValues != null) {            
                canvas.rotate(-mValues[0]);
            }
            canvas.drawPath(mPath, mPaint);
        }

        @Override
        protected void onAttachedToWindow() {
            mAnimate = true;
            super.onAttachedToWindow();
        }

        @Override
        protected void onDetachedFromWindow() {
            mAnimate = false;
            super.onDetachedFromWindow();
        }
    }
}

As you can see you do get the degrees between 0 to 360