A gyroscope sensor, along with the accelerometer, helps the phone understand how the device is oriented, providing an additional level of accuracy in position identification. Based on this sensor are created those photo spheres in 360 degrees.

Whenever you play a racing game on your phone and tilt the screen to steer, the gyroscope feels what you are doing because you only apply small corners on the phone and do not actually move through space.

The gyroscope is not a device built exclusively for phones. These equipment are used in the aeronautical industry to determine altitude and position. They are also used to keep video cameras optimally positioned when the aircraft changes position.

The technology of a gyroscope in the mobile phone

The gyroscopes inside the phones do not use wheels and gimbals like the traditional, mechanical ones, instead they are MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) gyroscopes, a smaller version of the concept incorporated on an electronic board that can fit inside a phone.

The first time the MEMS gyroscopes really hit it was with the iPhone 4 in 2010. At that time, it was incredibly new to have a phone that could detect the orientation with such accuracy – nowadays it has become trivial. .

The gyroscope is used in many gadgets today, including drones, helicopters, smartwatch and more.