Proximity sensors are also used in machine vibration monitoring to measure the variation in distance between a shaft and its support bearing.
This is common in large steam turbines, compressors, and motors that use sleeve-type bearings.
[1] When the target is within nominal range, the device lock screen user interface will appear, thus emerging from what is known as sleep mode.
For example, during a telephone call, proximity sensors play a role in detecting (and skipping) accidental touchscreen taps when mobiles are held to the ear.
An array of proximity sensing elements can replace vision-camera or depth camera based solutions for hand gesture detection.
An infrared proximity sensor
Optical proximity sensor in a 2016
Samsung
smartphone
. A proximity sensor is a standard feature of most smartphones, disabling the touchscreen when positioned near an ear during phone calls; more recent (late 2019-early 2020) smartphones with OLED displays may have the sensor mounted under the display.
Smartphone optical proximity sensor without the phone's casing. The sensor itself is the black object on top of the yellow block below it; this block is actually a
printed circuit board
serving as an
interposer
.
Proximity sensor installed on the front of an iPhone 5 next to the earpiece automatically turning off the touchscreen when the sensor comes within a predefined range of an object (such as a human ear) when using the handset
