[whatwg] Pressure API?

[Marshall Eubanks]

On Oct 20, 2010, at 9:23 AM, Henri Sivonen wrote:

>>> now that device orientation, geolocation, camera etc. have been
>>> spec'ed:
>>> Is there any intent to provide an API for pressure sensors?
>>> 
>>> This might well be the next hip feature in smartphones ...
>> 
>> Note that differential pressure measurements from nearby locations can
>> be better at determining
>> altitude differences than GPS, plus, they work indoors.
> 
> Are there other use cases apart from guessing the altitude? It figuring out the device altitude is the use case, shouldn't the API expose the altitude and allow the altitude to be computed by the browser or by the operating system from a pressure sensor, from GPS or both?
> 

Having worked in meteorology, I can tell you that, if every cell phone had a barometer attached, that data could and would be used to 
improve "micro-forecasts" over densely populated regions. It should be possible to track storm fronts and the like to the 100 meter level - imagine an app that gave you a 1 minute warning on the need for an umbrella. 

I am not going to pass any judgement on how hip this would be, but those are the uses I can see. 

Regards
Marshall


> -- 
> Henri Sivonen
> hsivonen at iki.fi
> http://hsivonen.iki.fi/
>