The mobile gyroscope is probably one of the most talked about features of the iPhone 4. With this nifty feature, the iPhone developers have proved once again that it rules the roost when it comes to innovation. In simple terms, the gyroscope allows the mobile device to actually ‘sense’ motion on all six axes, similar to the equally innovative Wiimote. The only difference here is that the iPhone development teams have actually put this technology on a mobile phone. The immediate benefit of the iPhone 4’s gyroscope technology is that it makes for some amazing game play. Even Steve Jobs had showed off the amazing gaming experience the iPhone 4 can deliver by playing a game similar to Jenga at his keynote address while launching the device. Even iPhone developers have been inspired by the idea behind this technology. An independent iPhone developer has successfully created software that can get your iPad or iPhone 3GS to work similarly in the manner the gyroscope of the iPhone 4 functions. This software, called the ‘Perspectiverse Engine’, is just the beginning of the vast field of motion sensing. Apart from gaming, the gyroscope has the potential to completely revolutionize the way we use mobile devices and their importance in our day to day life. A small example of this would be the usage of the gyroscope to stabilize the tiny cameras on cell phones. While this may not sound like much, stabilization does count when you hold a 5MP or 8MP camera phone. In an age where it’s really easy to find such high resolution cameras capable of 720p recording, the gyroscope feature might just be what the doctor ordered. The introduction of mobile gyroscopes has also given a new leash of life to the accelerometers that many phones carry. An accelerometer by itself is not able to distinguish between gravity and motion, which is why its use in mobile phones is severely restricted. However, with a combination of gyro and accelerometer, motion sensing can get a lot more responsive and useful. At the end of the day, mobile gyroscope technology is still in its infancy- the iPhone 4 is the only one equipped with it as we speak. However, more iPhone developers are entering into the foray and motion sensing and control is getting bigger everyday.
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