BubbleCompass

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A mixture of a Bubble level and a Compass for Symbian Anna & Nokia Belle smartphones.


This application uses GPS, accelerometer and magnetometer sensors to show inclination and rotation of the phone.
In simple words it emulates a bubble level and a compass simultaneously.

Main features include:

• professionally looking design;
• neat graphics;
• small memory footprint;
• lightning fast performance;
• compass marks opacity depends on compass calibration level.

In addition to that full version offers:

• vibro feedback when compass calibration level reaches at least 95%;
• numerous information shown on display:
• smartphone inclination value,
• azimuth value (when compass is calibrated),
• compass calibration level value (if it's not 100%),
• GPS coordinates (when available),
• magnetic declination value (when GPS available),
• time elapsed since last successful GPS synchronisation when it's lost for a long time;
• magnetic declination is calculated even if it is not reported by GPS (needs GPS coordinates available);
• labels on compass marks;
• zero azimuth mark;
• separate marks for magnetic and true north.

Note: the precision of sensors usually is not sufficient for industrial, navigational or any other real-life uses.

On some phones compass needs to be calibrated. The better it is calibrated the more opaque compass marks are. They can become even invisible if the compass is not calibrated at all.

Usually to calibrate it you have to rotate the phone in all three directions simultaneously for some time. As soon as the calibration level riches 95% you will be notified by vibro feedback (full version only). Make sure you do not touch exit button accidentally during calibration.

Dark blue rhombus mark points north, red rhombus mark points south. In full version there are labels on rhombuses.
Long light green marks show every 45°, short darker green ones show every 15°.

As soon as GPS gives coordinates, the magnetic declination (the difference between magnetic north and the true north) is displayed and applied to compass.

If connection to GPS is lost the last known magnetic declination value will be used for 15 minutes. If GPS is still not available after this period the time elapsed since last successful connection is shown.


Nokia store: http://store.ovi.com/content/276931



Technical info:
Name: BubbleCompass
Target: Symbian Anna, Nokia Belle
QT: 4.7.0+
UI: QWidgets, Graphics View
Author: © Kuzma Shapran, 2012
License: GPL v.3
Source code: available upon request.