Agenda

1. Learn how to detect gestures on the Micro:bit.
2. Turn in the movie project and finish the button/tilt project.
3. Study for the Micro:bit quiz.

In addition to buttons and the raw accelerometer, the Micro:bit can recognize named gestures — specific movements or orientations like shaking, tilting face-up, or going into freefall. You do not need to read numbers yourself; the Micro:bit figures out the gesture for you.

Use accelerometer.is_gesture("shake") to check whether the named gesture is currently happening. It returns True or False, so it works naturally inside an if statement.

Gestures to try

Example: Detect a Shake

from microbit import *

while True:
    if accelerometer.is_gesture("shake"):
        display.show(Image.SURPRISED)
        sleep(500)
    else:
        display.show(Image.HAPPY)

The sleep(500) gives the surprised face time to show before the loop checks again. Without it the display would flicker.

Example: Multiple Gestures

from microbit import *

while True:
    if accelerometer.is_gesture("shake"):
        display.show(Image.SURPRISED)
        sleep(500)
    elif accelerometer.is_gesture("face down"):
        display.show(Image.ASLEEP)
    elif accelerometer.is_gesture("face up"):
        display.show(Image.HAPPY)
    else:
        display.clear()

Mixing Gestures with Buttons

You can check gestures alongside button presses in the same while True loop — just add more elif branches.

from microbit import *

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(Image.HEART)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        display.show(Image.ARROW_E)
    elif accelerometer.is_gesture("shake"):
        display.show(Image.SURPRISED)
        sleep(500)
    else:
        display.clear()

1. Turn In the Movie Project

If you have not already done so, make sure your Micro:bit movie project (from March 12) is uploaded to your OneDrive folder. The file should be named lastname_movie.py.

2. Finish the Button/Tilt Project

Continue working on the button and tilt project from March 23. The file should be named lastname_button_tilt.py.

When you have met all the requirements, try adding a gesture to your program. For example, shaking the Micro:bit could show a surprise image, or holding it face-down could clear the screen.

Upload the finished file to your OneDrive folder when you are done.

3. Study for the Micro:bit Quiz

After turning in the button/tilt project, use the rest of class to review for the upcoming Micro:bit quiz on Monday, March 30. The quiz will cover:

• Displaying text with display.scroll() and display.show()
• Displaying built-in and custom images
• Playing a movie (a list of images with display.show())
• Reading button input with button_a.is_pressed()
• Reading tilt with accelerometer.get_x()
• Detecting gestures with accelerometer.is_gesture()

You can also look at the new example programs in the class repository for more ideas and practice code: c2examples on GitHub.