Automatic Sensor Selection Based On Requested Sensor Characteristics

A computing device comprising:

• a processing system comprising one or more processors;
• and
• one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform acts including:
• exposing a sensing priority interface receiving as a parameter an indication of which of multiple sensor characteristics are to be prioritized;
• in response to the sensing priority interface being called by a program of the computing device,
• identifying, based on the indication of which of multiple sensor characteristics are to be prioritized, one or more of multiple sensors,
• aggregating sensor data from the one or more sensors, and
• returning the aggregated data to the program.

A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising:

• exposing an API method having a parameter that is an indication of one or more sensor characteristics that are to be prioritized, the one or more sensor characteristics comprising one or more sensor characteristics selected from the group including heading accuracy, rotation rate accuracy, and power efficiency;
• and
• in response to the API method being invoked by a program running on the computing device, the program having no prior or run-time knowledge of the sensors supported by the computing device, and the program providing the indication of one or more sensor characteristics that are to be prioritized,
• identifying, based on the indication of the one or more sensor characteristics that are to be prioritized, multiple sensors from which sensor data is to be aggregated, the multiple sensors including an accelerometer, a magnetometer, and a gyroscope,
• aggregating the sensor data from the multiple sensors, the aggregated data comprises a 3D position and orientation of the computing device in 3D space, and
• returning the aggregated data to the program.