accelerometer.getCurrentAcceleration

Get the current acceleration along the x, y, and z axes.

navigator.accelerometer.getCurrentAcceleration(accelerometerSuccess, accelerometerError);

Description

The accelerometer is a motion sensor that detects the change (delta) in movement relative to the current device orientation, in three dimensions along the x, y, and z axis.

These acceleration values are returned to the [accelerometerSuccess](parameters/accelerometerSuccess.html) callback function.

Supported Platforms

  • Amazon Fire OS
  • Android
  • BlackBerry WebWorks 5.0+
  • iOS
  • Tizen
  • Windows Phone 7 and 8
  • Windows 8

Quick Example

function onSuccess(acceleration) {
    alert('Acceleration X: ' + acceleration.x + '\n' +
          'Acceleration Y: ' + acceleration.y + '\n' +
          'Acceleration Z: ' + acceleration.z + '\n' +
          'Timestamp: '      + acceleration.timestamp + '\n');
};

function onError() {
    alert('onError!');
};

navigator.accelerometer.getCurrentAcceleration(onSuccess, onError);

Full Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Acceleration Example</title>

    <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="cordova.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">

    // Wait for device API libraries to load
    //
    document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);

    // device APIs are available
    //
    function onDeviceReady() {
        navigator.accelerometer.getCurrentAcceleration(onSuccess, onError);
    }

    // onSuccess: Get a snapshot of the current acceleration
    //
    function onSuccess(acceleration) {
        alert('Acceleration X: ' + acceleration.x + '\n' +
              'Acceleration Y: ' + acceleration.y + '\n' +
              'Acceleration Z: ' + acceleration.z + '\n' +
              'Timestamp: '      + acceleration.timestamp + '\n');
    }

    // onError: Failed to get the acceleration
    //
    function onError() {
        alert('onError!');
    }

    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Example</h1>
    <p>getCurrentAcceleration</p>
  </body>
</html>

iOS Quirks

  • iOS doesn't recognize the concept of getting the current acceleration at any given point.

  • You must watch the acceleration and capture the data at given time intervals.

  • Thus, the getCurrentAcceleration function yields the last value reported from a watchAccelerometer call.