Distributed network of smartphone sensors: a new tool for scientific field measurements

Smartphones are widespread objects that have been used as physics sensors for the general public thanks to their availability, high connectivity and built-in sensors. Here, we present the use of a fleet of smartphones to create a distributed network of time-synchronized sensors. We first evaluate the sensors quality in the laboratory and then describe the network configuration that allows the remote control of an entire fleet. Finally, we present two test cases that use the smartphone fleet for physical field measurements. By this study, we show that this approach paves the way for large-scale field scientific studies.