Presented by Zahid Ghadialy at CW (Cambridge Wireless) Future Devices & Technologies SIG (#CWFDT) on 27th March 2018

1. How Crowdsourced Apps can
revolutionise weather monitoring
Future Devices & Technologies SIG (#CWFDT)
27th March 2018
@3g4gUK

2. Sensors in Smartphones – iPhone X
Location: Assisted GPS,
GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS,
Digital compass, Wi-Fi, Mobile
data, iBeacon micro-location
Sensors: Face ID, Barometer,
Three-axis gyro, Accelerometer,
Proximity sensor, Ambient light
sensor
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Source: Apple

3. Sensors in Smartphones – Samsung Galaxy S9+
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80
MU-MIMO, 1024QAM, Bluetooth® v 5.0 (LE up to
2Mbps), ANT+, USB type-C, NFC, Location (GPS, Galileo,
Glonass, BeiDou)
Payment: NFC, MST
Sensors: Iris sensor, Pressure sensor, Accelerometer,
Barometer, Fingerprint sensor, Gyro sensor, Geomagnetic
sensor, Hall sensor, HR sensor, Proximity sensor, RGB
Light sensor
Authentication: Lock type: pattern, PIN, password
Biometric lock type: iris scanner, fingerprint scanner, face
recognition
Intelligent Scan: biometric authentication with iris
scanning and facial recognition
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Source: BGR

4. What do the sensors do?
➢ Accelerometer: Accelerometers handle axis-based motion sensing and can be found in
fitness trackers as well as phones—they’re the reason why your smartphone can track
your steps even if you haven’t bought a separate wearable.
➢ Gyroscope: The gyroscope helps the accelerometer out with understanding which way
your phone is orientated— it adds another level of precision so those 360-degree photo
spheres really look as impressive as possible.
➢ Magnetometer: it measures magnetic fields and can thus tell you which way is north by
varying its voltage output to the phone.
➢ GPS: GPS units inside phones gets a ping from a satellite up in space to figure out which
part of the planet you’re standing on (or driving through).
➢ Barometer: measures air pressure: it’s useful for everything from detecting weather
changes to calculating the altitude you’re at.
➢ Proximity sensor usually sits up near the top speaker and combines an infrared LED and
light detector to work out when you have the phone up to your ear
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Source: Gizmodo

5. Realisation that sensors could generate weather
information
❖ From OpenSignal Blog:
❖ Aggregating daily battery temperature readings to city level
revealed a strong correlation with historic outdoor air
temperature. (link)
❖ Fire spreading simulations, as well as fire danger rating
systems, are largely based on two types of meteorological
data: ambient temperature and relative humidity.
Nowadays, some smartphones have incorporated sensors
to measure both. (link)
❖ Other research on using sensors and crowdsourced data for
monitoring environment (link)
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6. WeatherSignal Video
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Source

7. Open Discussion
What do you think about Crowdsourced weather
information?
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8. References
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• OpenSignal Launches WeatherSignal, Using Its Crowdsourcing Cell
Phone Coverage Tech To Tackle Meteorology – TechCrunch
• Sensing Samsung: The evolution of sensors in the Galaxy S series –
OpenSignal
• What smartphone batteries know about São Paulo’s weather –
OpenSignal
• How WeatherSignal can contribute to forest fire monitoring –
OpenSignal
• WeatherSignal - The Barometer for iPhone – App Store
• WeatherSignal – Google Play

9. Thank You
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