title: Android Workaround for non-working sensors when screen is off
body: <p>[Edit: Removed all mention of Android version - the issue is present on all versions of android]</p>
  
  <p>Background: When the screen is off, many Android phones do not provide updates to applications of Accelerometer readings by calling onSensorChanged() when the screen is off. This behavior is discussed on S.O. and is further documented here
  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3708">http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3708</a></p>
  
  <p>On some phones (Nexus S, Droid X2, ...) accelerometer values are only provided when there is a significant change in value. Sitting still on a table, for example, there might be one or zero updates per minute</p>
  
  <p>In order to produce code that is robust across phone models, how am I to distinguish between a lack of update events per screen off, vs. lack of updates per non-movement? Should I maintain a database of phone models?</p>