Getting ready

For this recipe, we will use the Kv language for the design of the widgets. Also, this recipe will use the common button and label widgets for reference. Obviously, to run the code of this recipe properly, a device with a gyroscope is necessary.

It is necessary to install a package to use the gyroscope with any mobile device. While there is a way to deal with specific devices, we do not have to reinvent the wheel. Let's use the plyer package, which is an effort from many of the Kivy developers. To install the package from the shell, use:

$ sudo pip plyer install

How to do it…

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

How it works…

The KV file that we are using is similar to the last recipe's KV file. We define four labels and the start button.

In the Python code, the first three lines are usual to import kivy and the widgets. The fourth line:

from kivy.clock import Clock

We are importing the clock, which is used to get the accelerometer value in a time lap because, as we already said, this input is continuously providing data. The fifth line:

from plyer import gyroscope

This is importing the package plyer, which is the one that makes it possible to retrieve the data from an iOS or Android device. The sixth line:

class Acce(Widget):

It is the line where the class for the rule starts and its name must be the same as in the Kivy rule. The seventh, eighth, and ninth lines are:

 def __init__(self):
 super(Acce, self).__init__()
 self.sensorEnabled = False

Those are where we define the methods that initialize the class and put the accelerometer on standby to be used later. The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth lines are as follows:

 def get_orientation(self, dt):
 val = gyroscope.orientation
 self.ids.label1.text = "X: " + str(val[0])
 self.ids.label2.text = "Y: " + str(val[1])
 self.ids.label3.text = "Z: " + str(val[2])

Those lines are allowing us to retrieve data from the gyroscope and enabling us to modify the text of the first three labels with the data of the orientation. The fifteenth line:

def pressed1(self):

It is where we define the method performed when the button is pressed. In the sixteenth line, we start a try sentence to start to get data from the gyroscope. With the seventeenth line, we can open an if sentence for the case that the gyroscope is unable, enable it. The eighteenth line:

Clock.schedule_interval(self.get_orientation, 1 / 20.)

In this line, we can get the intervals of the orientation by calling the get_orientation method. The next class is the usual one to display our Kivy interface.

See also

If you want to run the code in a mobile device, see Chapter 9, Kivy for Mobile Devices.