# olvvier/apple-silicon-accelerometer

reading the undocumented mems accelerometer + gyroscope on apple silicon macbooks via iokit hid

Repository: https://github.com/olvvier/apple-silicon-accelerometer
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/apple-silicon-accelerometer
Homepage: https://medium.com/@oli.bourbonnais/your-macbook-has-an-accelerometer-and-you-can-read-it-in-real-time-in-python-28d9395fb180
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: accelerometer, hid, iokit, m2, m3, m4, macbook, macos, mems, research, sensor, apple, spu, applespu, gyroscope
Last push: 2026-03-27T15:25:21+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 50/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 74, release rhythm 39, longevity 13
- inputs: {"age_days": 195, "days_push": 159, "days_rel": 195, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1221, forks 64 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:02.036466+00:00)

## What it is
A Python library that reads the undocumented MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope on Apple Silicon MacBooks via IOKit HID, along with lid angle and ambient light sensors. It accesses the AppleSPUHIDDevice directly since no public API exposes these sensors.

## Use cases
- read accelerometer data from macbook in python
- access gyroscope on apple silicon mac
- detect taps or slaps on macbook lid
- build typing-force sound effects from keyboard vibration
- read lid angle and ambient light sensor on macos
- reverse engineer hidden sensors on m2 m3 m4 macbooks

## When to choose
- you need real-time motion sensor data on an Apple Silicon MacBook
- you want to build apps reacting to physical taps, slaps, or typing force
- you're researching undocumented Apple hardware interfaces

## When to avoid
- you need guaranteed support across all Apple Silicon models (only tested on M3 Pro)
- you need a public, stable Apple API for motion sensors
- you're on Intel Macs or non-Apple hardware

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: sdk, developer-tools
- domain: hardware, apple-ecosystem, developer-tools, operating-systems
- platform: python, cli
- tags: accelerometer, gyroscope, iokit, hid, apple-silicon, mems, sensor-processing-unit, reverse-engineering, motion-sensors, macbook, hardware, macos

## Member repositories
- olvvier/apple-silicon-accelerometer (main) score 50

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:02.036466+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:15:52.969236+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/olvvier/apple-silicon-accelerometer (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:02.036466+00:00, sha 9b2f22756d74)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.