Windows 10 adds support for a wide range of health and lifestyle related sensors and capabilities, reveals the WinHec official presentations. There is even demo of newly added capability of “activity detection” in Windows 10 for Phones screenshots.
First let’s have a look at what is added with Windows 10 in terms of new sensors. Barometer support is finally there and my Lumia 1020 will be finally making use of its Barometer, when Windows 10 comes for it. There is support for custom sensors like Environmental and Biometric too.
- Barometer (new)
- Proximity (Human presence)
- Long range (new)
- Custom sensors (new)
- Environmental (Temperature, Humidity, CO2, UV, etc.)
- Biometric (Heart rate, Gas)
- Activity tracking/detection (new)
- (walking, running, etc.)
- Altimeter (new)
- Pedometer (new)
Activity detection enables identification of the physical activity or state like running, walking, Bicycle and even in vehicle. Check the below screenshots. It target all cases how device may be held e.g. Shirt Pocket, Pant Pocket, Hand, Bag, Purse, Jacket Pocket, Holster, Backpack.
As you can see in the four screenshots taken from a smartphone running Windows 10 for Phones, it identifies or detects the activity as walking and even detects that activity has been stopped.
