Sensor coordinate system in Android doesn't change, does it?

Question

I read in many places like: One Screen Deserves Another that: "The sensor coordinate system used by the API for the natural orientation of the device does not change as the device moves, and is the same as the OpenGL coordinate system."

Now, I get the same reading as this image:

What I don't understand is: If the coordinate system doesn't change if I rotate the phone (always with the screen facing the user), the gravity force should be applied on Y axis, always. It should only change the axis if I put the phone in a position where the screen is not facing the user anymore like resting on a table, where gravity should be applied on Z axis.

What is wrong with my understanding?

Thanks! Guillermo.

Answer 1

The axis are swapped when the device's screen orientation changes. Per the article you cited:

However, the Android sensor APIs define the sensor coordinate space to be relative to the top and side of the device — not the short and long sides. When the system reorients the screen in response to holding the phone sideways, the sensor coordinate system no longer lines up with the screen’s coordinate system, and you get unexpected rotations in the display of your app.

To access the un-swapped values if you'd like, use indices 3, 4 and 5 in values[], otherwise some of the suggestions mentioned in that same article work quite nicely!