Smart Measure is intended to help you get approximate measurements of the height and distance of an object. It triangulates measurements using your phone’s accelerometer and camera. It makes use of some standard geometric equations to come up with rough measurements of height and distance for whatever object you’re aiming at. The concept is very creative and innovative, and the creators certainly deserve much credit for that. It’s unfortuante that, even for an app intended to give only approximate measurements, the results tend to be pretty wildly inaccurate.
The first thing you need to do is to calibrate both your phone and the program, You can use the application settings of your phones’ accelerometer to to calibrate it, if you haven’t done so already. To properly calibrate the program, you’ll have to give a measurement of what height from the ground you’ll be holding it when taking measurements. You’ll need to be as accurate as you possibly can here, so it’s probably a good idea to take an actual physical measurement of the height at which you comfortably hold your phone when pointing it.
Once you’ve given the height for holding, aim your camera at the bottom of some object from a reasonable distance. It’s very important to aim at the base of the object in order for the triangulation to work correctly. The app will then make the necessary calculations to work out the distance between you and the object, and you can save this by clicking the screen button marked Get Distance.
If you want to get an approximate estimate of the object’s height, press the button marked Height, aim at the object’s top, then click on Get Height. You can also measure the height where you are in a particular building.
As far as the results go, at best they tend to be pretty erratic. Sometimes the discrepancy is only a couple of feet, at other times they are wildly inaccurate. In general, measurements of height seem to be a bit closer to the mark than estimations of distance for some reason. The results will be even further off if you are not on the same level as the object – if it’s on a slope up or down from you.
Smart Measure is definitely not suitable for use in any situation where you’re needing to get measurements that are precise. As such, as it’s difficult to imagine when it would actually be suitable to use. But if for some reason you need to get very rough measurements of height or distance, then this is the right app.
