How to refresh app upon shaking the device?

Question

I need to add a shake feature that will refresh my Android application.

All I find of documentation involves implementing the SensorListener, but Eclipse tells me it's deprecated and suggest SensorEventListener.

Anybody that has a nice guide to how I go about creating this shake controller?

Answer 1

I am developing a motion-detection and shake-detection app for my university project.

Besides the original target of the application, I am splitting the library part (responsible for motion and shake detection) from the app. The code is free, available on SourceForge with the project name "BenderCatch". Documentation I am producing will be ready around mid-september. http://sf.net/projects/bendercatch

It uses a more precise way to detect shake: watches BOTH the difference of force between SensorEvents AND the oscillations present in X and Y axis when you perform a shake. It can even make a sound (or vibrate) on each oscillation of the shake.

Feel free to ask me more by e-mail at raffaele [at] terzigno [dot] com

Answer 2

I have written a small example for detecting vertical and horizontal shakes and showing a Toast.

public class Accelerometerka2Activity extends Activity implements SensorEventListener { 
    private float mLastX, mLastY, mLastZ;
    private boolean mInitialized;
    private SensorManager mSensorManager;
    private Sensor mAccelerometer;
    private final float NOISE = (float) 8.0;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        mInitialized = false;
        mSensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
        mAccelerometer = mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER);
        mSensorManager.registerListener(this, mAccelerometer , SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_NORMAL);
    }

    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        mSensorManager.registerListener(this, mAccelerometer, SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_NORMAL);
    }

    protected void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        mSensorManager.unregisterListener(this);
    }


    public void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy) {
        // can be safely ignored for this demo
    }


    public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) {
        float x = event.values[0];
        float y = event.values[1];
        float z = event.values[2];
        if (!mInitialized) {
            mLastX = x;
            mLastY = y;
            mLastZ = z;
            mInitialized = true;
        } else {
            float deltaX = Math.abs(mLastX - x);
            float deltaY = Math.abs(mLastY - y);
            float deltaZ = Math.abs(mLastZ - z);
            if (deltaX < NOISE) deltaX = (float)0.0;
            if (deltaY < NOISE) deltaY = (float)0.0;
            if (deltaZ < NOISE) deltaZ = (float)0.0;
            mLastX = x;
            mLastY = y;
            mLastZ = z;
            if (deltaX > deltaY) {
                Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), "Horizental", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            } else if (deltaY > deltaX) {
                Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), "Vertical", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

You should subscribe as a SensorEventListener, and get the accelerometer data. once you have it, you should monitor for sudden change in direction (sign) of acceleration on a certain axis. it would be a good indication for the 'shake' movement.

Answer 4

You might want to try open source tinybus. With it shake detection is as easy as this.

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    private Bus mBus;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        ...

        // Create a bus and attach it to activity
        mBus = TinyBus.from(this).wire(new ShakeEventWire());
    }

    @Subscribe
    public void onShakeEvent(ShakeEvent event) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Device has been shaken", 
                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStart() {
        super.onStart();
        mBus.register(this);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStop() {
        mBus.unregister(this);
        super.onStop();
    }
}

It uses seismic for shake detection.

Answer 5

Here is my code for shake gesture detection:

import android.hardware.Sensor;
import android.hardware.SensorEvent;
import android.hardware.SensorEventListener;
import android.hardware.SensorManager;


/**
 * Listener that detects shake gesture.
 */
public class ShakeEventListener implements SensorEventListener {


  /** Minimum movement force to consider. */
  private static final int MIN_FORCE = 10;

  /**
   * Minimum times in a shake gesture that the direction of movement needs to
   * change.
   */
  private static final int MIN_DIRECTION_CHANGE = 3;

  /** Maximum pause between movements. */
  private static final int MAX_PAUSE_BETHWEEN_DIRECTION_CHANGE = 200;

  /** Maximum allowed time for shake gesture. */
  private static final int MAX_TOTAL_DURATION_OF_SHAKE = 400;

  /** Time when the gesture started. */
  private long mFirstDirectionChangeTime = 0;

  /** Time when the last movement started. */
  private long mLastDirectionChangeTime;

  /** How many movements are considered so far. */
  private int mDirectionChangeCount = 0;

  /** The last x position. */
  private float lastX = 0;

  /** The last y position. */
  private float lastY = 0;

  /** The last z position. */
  private float lastZ = 0;

  /** OnShakeListener that is called when shake is detected. */
  private OnShakeListener mShakeListener;

  /**
   * Interface for shake gesture.
   */
  public interface OnShakeListener {

    /**
     * Called when shake gesture is detected.
     */
    void onShake();
  }

  public void setOnShakeListener(OnShakeListener listener) {
    mShakeListener = listener;
  }

  @Override
  public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent se) {
    // get sensor data
    float x = se.values[SensorManager.DATA_X];
    float y = se.values[SensorManager.DATA_Y];
    float z = se.values[SensorManager.DATA_Z];

    // calculate movement
    float totalMovement = Math.abs(x + y + z - lastX - lastY - lastZ);

    if (totalMovement > MIN_FORCE) {

      // get time
      long now = System.currentTimeMillis();

      // store first movement time
      if (mFirstDirectionChangeTime == 0) {
        mFirstDirectionChangeTime = now;
        mLastDirectionChangeTime = now;
      }

      // check if the last movement was not long ago
      long lastChangeWasAgo = now - mLastDirectionChangeTime;
      if (lastChangeWasAgo < MAX_PAUSE_BETHWEEN_DIRECTION_CHANGE) {

        // store movement data
        mLastDirectionChangeTime = now;
        mDirectionChangeCount++;

        // store last sensor data 
        lastX = x;
        lastY = y;
        lastZ = z;

        // check how many movements are so far
        if (mDirectionChangeCount >= MIN_DIRECTION_CHANGE) {

          // check total duration
          long totalDuration = now - mFirstDirectionChangeTime;
          if (totalDuration < MAX_TOTAL_DURATION_OF_SHAKE) {
            mShakeListener.onShake();
            resetShakeParameters();
          }
        }

      } else {
        resetShakeParameters();
      }
    }
  }

  /**
   * Resets the shake parameters to their default values.
   */
  private void resetShakeParameters() {
    mFirstDirectionChangeTime = 0;
    mDirectionChangeCount = 0;
    mLastDirectionChangeTime = 0;
    lastX = 0;
    lastY = 0;
    lastZ = 0;
  }

  @Override
  public void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy) {
  }

}

Add this in your activity:

  private SensorManager mSensorManager;

  private ShakeEventListener mSensorListener;

...

in onCreate() add:

    mSensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
    mSensorListener = new ShakeEventListener();   

    mSensorListener.setOnShakeListener(new ShakeEventListener.OnShakeListener() {

      public void onShake() {
        Toast.makeText(KPBActivityImpl.this, "Shake!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
      }
    });

and:

@Override
  protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    mSensorManager.registerListener(mSensorListener,
        mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER),
        SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_UI);
  }

  @Override
  protected void onPause() {
    mSensorManager.unregisterListener(mSensorListener);
    super.onPause();
  }

Answer 6

You can use seismic. An example can be found here.