Apple’s second-generation iPod touch [7], running
the iOS 4.2.1 mobile operating system with the freely available SPARKvue app (v.1.2.1)
from PASCO scientific [9] was used to obtain
acceleration data. The iPod touch’s internal
three-axis digital accelerometer coupled with the
SPARKvue app allows for the measurement of
accelerations in the x-, y- and z-directions and the
resultant as a function of time. The data obtained
are sent via email as a comma-separated value
(.csv) file using the app’s export data function.
Once the data is in the .csv format, any typical
graphing/spreadsheet program may be used to
construct graphs of the data for analysis.