{"id":504839,"date":"2010-04-02T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/?p=17133"},"modified":"2010-04-02T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:00:52","slug":"tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/504839","title":{"rendered":"Tricorder: Turn your Android phone into a multi-sensor environmental monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s no secret that Android has a healthy nerd following. What device that allows you to check your e-mail, update Twitter and browse the web at the same time wouldn&#8217;t? However, this provides yet another battlefield for a war that&#8217;s been waging for eons: Star Wars vs. Star Trek.<\/p>\n<p>While the wookies have their share of lightsaber apps (including my personal favourite, <em>The Schwartz Unsheathed), <\/em>those who&#8217;d rather relax on the enterprise with Deanna Troi (or that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zvY3jVJJKEI\">dreamy William Riker<\/a>) can now take solace, knowing they can turn their phone into a surprisingly functional <a href=\"http:\/\/code.google.com\/p\/moonblink\/wiki\/Tricorder\">Tricorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The goods:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The tricorder&#8217;s functions. From first look, this seems to be one of those apps that displays an animation and beeps with sounds from the show; however, developer <a href=\"http:\/\/code.google.com\/p\/moonblink\/\">Moonblink<\/a> used the functions of the Android phone in order to provide informational readouts on the environment around you.<\/li>\n<li>Readouts available include a graphed accelerometer status (wave it around, it goes nuts!), audio analysis (in decibels), geographic readout using a compass and GPS, signal power readings based on 3G and WiFi. Perhaps most impressively, it displays an analysis of the sun&#8217;s environment which includes photographs of sunspots and its corona.<\/li>\n<li>Authentic sound effects! This is pretty much a given, but props for making me think I have a tricorder in my hand.<\/li>\n<li>Sharp graphics on my Milestone. Everything is readable.<\/li>\n<li>Translates the current date into a Stardate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Needs improving<\/strong>:<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While I don&#8217;t have any major criticisms for the app, I think that if anything were to be added to make it better, it would be some sound bytes of actual show lines. I mean, if I have a button that says <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CX8NsJn_KpM\">&#8220;Shut up Wesley!&#8221;<\/a> every time I press it, I&#8217;d be damned happy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Final verdict<\/strong>: The Tricorder is one of those apps that has hardly anything wrong with it, but only serves a very specific function: to impress your nerd friends. It&#8217;s also great to show off your phone&#8217;s higher functions in a friendly way: there&#8217;s lot of great graphs and diagrams that make it easier to explain what&#8217;s going on. It&#8217;s free, as well, which definitely makes the download more attractive; I mean, what do you have to lose?<\/p>\n<p>Well, besides the friendship of those who wield the Force.<\/p>\n<p><a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/acoustic\/' title='Acoustic sensors'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/acoustic-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Acoustic sensors\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/accel\/' title='Accelerometer'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Accel-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Accelerometer\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/wifi\/' title='Wifi power analysis'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/wifi-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Wifi power analysis\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/solar\/' title='Solar readouts'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/solar-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Solar readouts\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/geog\/' title='Geographic analysis'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/geog-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Geographic analysis\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/magnetic\/' title='Magnetic layout'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/magnetic-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Magnetic layout\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/tricorder-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-multi-sensor-environmental-monitor\/attachment\/sunspots\/' title='Sunspots'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sunspots-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" title=\"Sunspots\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3  class=\"related_post_title\">Related Posts<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"related_post\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/reviews\/queueman-androids-premiere-netflix-management-application\/\" title=\"QueueMan: Android&#8217;s premiere Netflix management application\">QueueMan: Android&#8217;s premiere Netflix management application<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/games\/world-war-a-nuclear-war-breaks-out-on-android\/\" title=\"World War: A nuclear war breaks out on Android\">World War: A nuclear war breaks out on Android<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/applications\/hootsuite-an-android-twitter-app-tailor-made-for-businesses\/\" title=\"HootSuite: A unique Twitter app tailor made for businesses\">HootSuite: A unique Twitter app tailor made for businesses<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/04\/applications\/mapdroyd-true-offline-maps-for-your-android\/\" title=\"MapDroyd: True offline maps for your Android\">MapDroyd: True offline maps for your Android<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/androidandme.com\/2010\/03\/applications\/google-removing-language-barriers-between-the-species\/\" title=\"Google removing language barriers between the species\">Google removing language barriers between the species<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s no secret that Android has a healthy nerd following. What device that allows you to check your e-mail, update Twitter and browse the web at the same time wouldn&#8217;t? However, this provides yet another battlefield for a war that&#8217;s been waging for eons: Star Wars vs. Star Trek. While the wookies have their share [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}