By benson chang on January 28, 2019
In many ways, we the users of mobile phones have wasted the potential of the smartphones that have become more important to us than any other possession. Many people spend hundreds of dollars on their phones to use it for nothing more than a few basic apps, messaging, YouTube videos, and perhaps a few games; not actively utilizing many of the components in our phones. Something as simple as downloading an app that shows you all the information your phone has access to, like Sensor Multitool (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wered.sensorsmultitool&hl=en), is the first step to gaining an appreciation for the power we carry around daily.
Aside from the fact that the smartphones we carry have magnitudes more computing power than the Apollo spacecraft, it also comes with GPS, barometer, light sensor, accelerometer etc. all of which are tools that can be used for serious science (https://www.elsevier.com/connect/new-ways-to-use-smartphones-for-science ). With proper access and usage of the tools available in the smartphone, many science labs that used to require costly special equipment purchases are essentially “free”. In addition, by using the smartphone as a basic platform, it is possible to put add-ons that can make various measurements such as humidity, or even carbon dioxide levels (https://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/feature/turn-your-smartphone-into-any-kind-of-sensor). By using the smartphone as a platform for attachments, it can drastically decrease cost, allowing less well funded areas to provide the same opportunities to their students.
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I first misunderstood the meaning of Benson Chang’s topic “smart senors”. I guess the notion of “smart senors” means a person who really now about the potentials of the mobile devices and purchases and uses them wisely. However, I should be a typo, and what did he mean is how to know about the sensors of a mobile device and make full use of it. He provided interesting sources and some ideas about how to dig deeper into one’s mobile devices. As he has revealed, indeed, many people have never made the most from their mobile devices, which had spent hundreds of dollars. The sensor is just one of the many potentials that worth some research. And I believe “digital immigrant” is no less smart than “digital native” about mobile technologies.