Accelerometer Class
[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]
Provides Windows Phone applications access to the device’s accelerometer sensor.
Microsoft.Devices.Sensors::SensorBase<AccelerometerReading>
Microsoft.Devices.Sensors::Accelerometer
Assembly: Microsoft.Devices.Sensors (in Microsoft.Devices.Sensors.dll)
XMLNS for XAML: Not mapped to an xmlns.
The Accelerometer type exposes the following members.
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | CurrentValue | Gets an object that implements ISensorReading that contains the current value of the sensor. This object will be one of the following types, depending on which sensor is being referenced: AccelerometerReading, CompassReading, GyroscopeReading, MotionReading. (Inherited from SensorBase<TSensorReading>.) |
| IsDataValid | Gets the validity of the sensor’s data. (Inherited from SensorBase<TSensorReading>.) |
 | IsSupported | Gets or sets whether the device on which the application is running supports the accelerometer sensor. |
| State | Gets the current state of the accelerometer. The value is a member of the SensorState enumeration. |
| TimeBetweenUpdates | Gets or sets the preferred time between CurrentValueChanged events. (Inherited from SensorBase<TSensorReading>.) |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | Dispose | Releases the managed and unmanaged resources used by the Accelerometer. |
| Equals(Object) | Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.) |
 | Finalize | Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before the Object is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from SensorBase<TSensorReading>.) |
| GetHashCode | Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.) |
| GetType | Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.) |
| MemberwiseClone | Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.) |
| Start | Starts data acquisition from the accelerometer. |
| Stop | Stops data acquisition from the accelerometer. |
| ToString | Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.) |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | CurrentValueChanged | Occurs when new data arrives from the sensor. (Inherited from SensorBase<TSensorReading>.) |
| ReadingChanged | Obsolete. Occurs when new data arrives from the accelerometer. This method is deprecated in the current release. Applications should use the CurrentValueChanged event of the SensorBase<TSensorReading> class instead. |
The acceleration value is expressed as a 3-dimensional vector representing the acceleration components in the X, Y, and Z axes in gravitational units. The orientation of the acceleration is relative to the device such that -1g is applied in the Z-axis when the device is face up on a level table and -1g is applied to the Y-axis when the device is placed perpendicular to the table top.
The accelerometer sensor will detect the force of gravity along with any forces resulting from the movement of the phone. The MotionReading class uses multiple device sensors to separate the gravity vector from the device acceleration and allows you to easily determine the current attitude (yaw, pitch, and roll) of the device.
Capabilities
If you use this API in your app, you must specify the following capabilities in the app manifest. Otherwise, your app might not work correctly or it might exit unexpectedly.
ID_CAP_SENSORS | Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone OS 7.1 |
For more info, see App capabilities and hardware requirements for Windows Phone 8.