sense.js

an HTML5 interaction library for mobile browsers

Overview

HTML5 offers a lot of awesome access to hardware data. Sense.js is a library that abstracts away the math and gives developers and designers easy access to some common non-touch gesture interactions with simple javascript callbacks.

Disclaimer

This was made as a part of GreylockU's Hackfest, and will likely see changes to make things better/add more gestures :)

Pull requests and feature suggestions are welcome!

Demo

You can find a demo at http://sense-js.jit.su/

Orientation

A ball rolls around based on your screen position!

Flick

Flick your phone to the right or left to slide a color.

Flip

Flip your phone face down and face up, and a new color appears!

Color Fling

Open this page on multiple devices. Selecting a color and flicking it 'flicks' that color to all other devices.

Scroll

sense.js enabled scroll based on screen tilt

Quickstart

Download sense.js, and refer to it in an html file, and initialize it!

<script src="path/to/sense.js"></script>
<script>
    var sense = sense.init();
    
    sense.flick(function(data){
        // Your callback code here!
    });
</script>

Documentation

sense.orientation([options], callback)

Orientation fires continuously, and emits alpha, beta, and gamma data from the device.

Options	Description	Default
alphaThreshold	(number) Threshold for changes in delta	0
betaThreshold	(number) Threshold for changes in beta	0
gammaThreshold	(number) Threshold for changes in gamma	0
radians	(boolean) True to emit values in radians	false

Data	Description
alpha	(number) degree/radian value for direction the device is pointed
beta	(number) degree/radian value for device's front-back tilt
gamma	(number) degree/radian value for device's left-right tilt

Sample Usage:

sense.orientation(function(data){
    console.log(data)
});

sense.flick([options], callback)

Flick events fire when the device is rotated quickly left-to-right or right-to-left.

Options	Description	Default
interval	(number) the duration in milliseconds to watch for a flick event	150
sensitivity	(number) multiplier to adjust amount of acceleration required. lower = more sensitive	1

Data	Description
direction	(String) 'left' or 'right' depending on the flick direction
magnitude	(number) the magnitude of the acceleration on flick

Sample Usage:

sense.flick(function(data){
    slidePage(data.direction)
});

sense.fling([options], callback)

Fling events fire when the device is rotated quickly in the front-to-back direction, as if being thrown overhand (with the device facing towards you).

Options	Description	Default
interval	(number) the duration in milliseconds to watch for a flick event	150
sensitivity	(number) multiplier to adjust amount of acceleration required. lower = more sensitive	1

Data	Description
magnitude	(number) the magnitude of the acceleration on flick

Sample Usage:

sense.fling(function(data){
    sendFile();
});

sense.flip([options], callback)

Flip events fire when the phone is quickly flipped from face-up to face-down to face-up position.

Options	Description	Default
gestureDuration	(number) timespan in milliseconds that the flip event can occur over	150

Data	Description
gamma	(number) the final gamma value after the flip

Sample Usage:

sense.flip(function(data){
    showRandomNumber();
});

sense.addTiltScroll([options])

This one line allows the user to observe the tilt of the user's phone to scroll on a page.

Options	Description	Default
maxHorizontalAngle	(number)	80
maxHorizontalOffset	(number)	100
maxHorizontalSpeed	(number)	15
maxVerticalAngle	(number)	40
maxVerticalOffset	(number)	100
maxVerticalSpeed	(number)	15

Sample Usage:

sense.addTiltScroll();

Debugging

We can initialize Sense with a debug flag!

var sense = sense.init({debug: true});

The debugger will include a fixed div in the bottom right corner that displays data when events fire. This is particularly useful when debugging on mobile, as you can't use debugger or console.log :(

To start the demo site:

$ npm install
$ npm start