3 ms·
More interesting than the barometer is the thermometer in the S4. Has any other phone included one yet? Crowd-sourcing of weather data is an interesting concept
by jbuzbee 14y ago
More interesting than the barometer is the thermometer in the S4. Has any other phone included one yet? Crowd-sourcing of weather data is an interesting concept, but I wonder how useful a thermometer will be when phones will most often be in pockets, indoors, in a car, etc.
- danshapiro 14y agoMany android phones have a thermometer. It precisely measures the weighted average of the ambient temperature and the waste heat from the processor. In other words, just this side of useless, because the thermometer is next to a heater.
- jeza 14y agoNot very useful at all. To accurately measure temperature you really need a Stevenson screen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenson_screen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenson_screen). But furthermore, this needs to be located in a good location with attributes such as good air circulation, lack of buildings, concrete, trees, etc. It's often impossible to meet all these conditions in an urban area, which means you're really measuring a micro climate. While there are some sites that crowd-source data from personal weather stations, there's really no guarantee that people have followed good guide lines with the placement and installation of their weather station. It's sometimes obvious when this is occurring because you see some pretty large variations in temperature in more or less the same neighbourhood.
- kybernetyk 14y agoBut what if many people measure their local microclimates? Couldn't one 'add up' all those measurements to get the 'real' temperature out of it? Would be like a high resolution heat map.