index.md

---

title: AbsoluteOrientationSensor
slug: Web/API/AbsoluteOrientationSensor
page-type: web-api-interface
browser-compat: api.AbsoluteOrientationSensor

---

{{APIRef("Sensor API")}}

The AbsoluteOrientationSensor interface of the Sensor APIs describes the device's physical orientation in relation to the Earth's reference coordinate system.

To use this sensor, the user must grant permission to the 'accelerometer', 'gyroscope', and 'magnetometer' device sensors through the Permissions API.

This feature may be blocked by a Permissions Policy set on your server.

{{InheritanceDiagram}}

Constructor

• {{domxref("AbsoluteOrientationSensor.AbsoluteOrientationSensor", "AbsoluteOrientationSensor()")}}

  • : Creates a new AbsoluteOrientationSensor object.

Instance properties

No specific properties; inherits properties from its ancestors {{domxref('OrientationSensor')}} and {{domxref('Sensor')}}.

Instance methods

No specific methods; inherits methods from its ancestors {{domxref('OrientationSensor')}} and {{domxref('Sensor')}}.

Events

No specific events; inherits methods from its ancestor, {{domxref('Sensor')}}.

Examples

Basic Example

The following example, which is loosely based on Intel's Orientation Phone demo, instantiates an AbsoluteOrientationSensor with a frequency of 60 times a second. On each reading it uses {{domxref('OrientationSensor.quaternion')}} to rotate a visual model of a phone.

const options = { frequency: 60, referenceFrame: "device" };
const sensor = new AbsoluteOrientationSensor(options);

sensor.addEventListener("reading", () => {
  // model is a Three.js object instantiated elsewhere.
  model.quaternion.fromArray(sensor.quaternion).inverse();
});
sensor.addEventListener("error", (error) => {
  if (event.error.name === "NotReadableError") {
    console.log("Sensor is not available.");
  }
});
sensor.start();

Permissions Example

Using orientation sensors requires requesting permissions for multiple device sensors. Because the {{domxref('Permissions')}} interface uses promises, a good way to request permissions is to use {{jsxref('Promise.all')}}.

const sensor = new AbsoluteOrientationSensor();
Promise.all([
  navigator.permissions.query({ name: "accelerometer" }),
  navigator.permissions.query({ name: "magnetometer" }),
  navigator.permissions.query({ name: "gyroscope" }),
]).then((results) => {
  if (results.every((result) => result.state === "granted")) {
    sensor.start();
    // …
  } else {
    console.log("No permissions to use AbsoluteOrientationSensor.");
  }
});

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}