I wonder if somebody can give a solution of automatic backlight adjusting.
I think as a phone Athena need to be bright enough to use outdoor as well as in house. But it is a pity that the screen looks poor outdoor if the environment is already light.
My idea is to check the brightness via its built-in camera and adjust the backlight setting automatically. But it is again a pity that I am not able to develop on WM...
Can anybody give a solution? I would appreciate very much!!!
I have this feature on my Dell D620 notebook (dim sensor) and can tell, it's not significantly useful - at least I can see no difference, since the display itself is too dark for regular outdoor use.
Regarding your solution: I think the permanent camera-use would consume quite some power, wouldn't it? So the costs would be a faster leeching of the battery while the benefits are to automate a rather simple backlight-slider changing...
Any good? Camera+program vs. eye+hand?
will_990 said:
I have this feature on my Dell D620 notebook (dim sensor) and can tell, it's not significantly useful - at least I can see no difference, since the display itself is too dark for regular outdoor use.
Regarding your solution: I think the permanent camera-use would consume quite some power, wouldn't it? So the costs would be a faster leeching of the battery while the benefits are to automate a rather simple backlight-slider changing...
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Hello will_990,
I totally disagree with you. Form view points of benfit and battery.
I agree with you that the display itself is too dark. It is dark even if I manually turn it to max when I stay in sunlight. But won't software help a little bit? For me at least this will enable me to dail. Then the question is how to make a dail faster.
I do not see any clue it will drain larger power. If I move from a light place to a dark place, then the reduced backlight can then save some power. In addition, the camera does not have to stay on and keep acquiring brightness all the time. The use case could be:
1. User activate on screen.
2. Due to the event camera is on and light is acquired.
3. Software caculate brightness and suitable backlight.
4. The program set backlight and switch off the camera.
You have to check if a while of camera-on consumes more or lighting backlight high does. Assume that P1 is camera power and P2 is backlight power. t1 is calculation time and t3 is manual adjust delay. t2 is the duration you use it then. I expect
(P1+P2)*t1<(P2-P2')*t2.
Certainly, you can use your finger energy to adjust and thus save battery. Then P1=0 but P2*t3 is existing yet. Especially, in case you hold a device already dark, you have difficulty to find the slider so t3 becomes a consuming factor. I expect optimally even
(P1+P2)*t1<P2*t3.
I still looking for solutions...
Your opinion is well founded, however, in my opinion it is lacking at a certain point: I simply don't think that (P1+P2)*t1<P2*t3 could ever become true, unless you'd spend a really long time in changing the slider - or calculation time (and therefor CPU power consumption) would be set rather low...
I have to admit, though, that I don't know the variables' true values, therefor I can't verify or falsify your equations.
Anyway, it would certainly be interesting to test it, google is somewhat lacking on this topic.
Suppose a Case
The later equation deduces to
P1/P2 < t3/t1 - 1.
The battery is 2200mAh. I assume it lasts 3 hours with simple taping operation. So I suppose then 733mA is drawing normally without camera. Suppose the camera(the upper camera) boost the current double, addition 733mA, and calculation time is 10 seconds, and if you spend more than 20 seconds on handling the setting, you make it true.
Nevertheless I have to say, the number is just my estimation.
Even if the later one is false the feature is still attractive.
Looking for somebody to go on with this idea...
Could anybody to go on with this idea?
Related
Is there a software for making the flashlite turn on without using the camERA ON.
It is really useful if you dont want the camera to drain the precious battery... especially if you need it for hours...
I dont remember it, but I think I've seen it before somewhere in the net...
cingular 8125
rev5
Well, when using the camera app, it's not the sensor itself, but the maxed out backlight and the flashlight LED that eat most of the battery. So turning on just the LED won't buy you too much battery life in my opinion. Besides, i don't know if using a wizard as a flashlight "for hours" is a good idea - that thing is a high power LED, and they tend to heat up during prolonged use. Since it doesn't have any heatsink or even a big PCB to help dissipate the heat, it wold probably get damaged after half an hour of using it at max brightness. It would probably last longer at lower brightness - like when the camera app is turned on (the camera app enables full brightness only for a second when taking a picture), but using it for long periods of time even in that mode isn't a very good idea.
I think you'll be better off buying one of those small keychain LED flashlights, of a bit bigger flashlight using a 1W power LED if you need something brighter. It will be much cheaper than replacing a burned down LED in the phone.
And for short term emergency use - starting the camera app isn't that much of a problem after all.
Using your flash as a flashlight is a surefire way to burn it out. It's a high output LED, and isn't made to be run constantly. You can definitely do this trick, Vijay555 has created a widget that lets you toggle it on and off, but even he warns you of the consequences.
http://www.vijay555.com/?Releases:VJCandela
But it's not possible to dim it with this app, the camera program dimms the LED until you actually make a picture.
BriteLite
Actually the flash led is bright but the backlight maxed out with a white screen puts out more light. It still runs down the battery quickly but you are not pushing anything the phone isn't designed to do. I created a mortscript that combines two apps I found on these forums. One maxes out the backlight and the other displays a solid white screen. You can pick other colors too. here is the link http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...4&postcount=24 I use it all the time when I'm under a desk plugging cables into a computer and need a light.
Cheers
mr_deimos said:
Well, when using the camera app, it's not the sensor itself, but the maxed out backlight and the flashlight LED that eat most of the battery. So turning on just the LED won't buy you too much battery life in my opinion. Besides, i don't know if using a wizard as a flashlight "for hours" is a good idea - that thing is a high power LED, and they tend to heat up during prolonged use. Since it doesn't have any heatsink or even a big PCB to help dissipate the heat, it wold probably get damaged after half an hour of using it at max brightness. It would probably last longer at lower brightness - like when the camera app is turned on (the camera app enables full brightness only for a second when taking a picture), but using it for long periods of time even in that mode isn't a very good idea.
I think you'll be better off buying one of those small keychain LED flashlights, of a bit bigger flashlight using a 1W power LED if you need something brighter. It will be much cheaper than replacing a burned down LED in the phone.
And for short term emergency use - starting the camera app isn't that much of a problem after all.
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THATS VERY TRUE BUT IM NOT GOING TO USE IT FOR A HALF HOUR!...
its just that i want to show of my phone to other people...
and probably use it at night or so
thxks for the link..!
Hey guys,
do you think it's possible to wirte a program which automatically can change the backlight according to the actual daylight condition.
Maybe it is possible to start the program when you wake up your device. then the program turns on the built in (front) camera for about a second or maybe more. The camera "checks" out the light intensity. If its very bright the backlight condition is set to the max.
his is only a idea. I'm thinking of it because for example today it's a very sunny and i can almost read nothing on the display of my touch cruise!!
What do you think about it?
greetings
any idea?
Or does any software like this exist?
Maybe the guy who wrote this program below could be of assistance:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=379270
Well, it doesn't have to be so hard...
All we need is a small service that reads from a file the approximate sunrise-sunset time and alters the brightness accordingly. If anyone has the time, he can additionally take advantage of the current time zone and calculate those limits automatically all year long!
Destinator 7 does the exact same think by turning night colors on and off. It is actually better than a build in brightness sensor because it never fails!
Nevermind...did not read the question thououghly
Yeah good ideas,
but a time sceduled scenery has also disadvanteges. When its clowdy outside it causes unnecessary battery consumption.
MVBklight 1.4.2 is not working on my polaris!!
w04g005 said:
Yeah good ideas,
but a time sceduled scenery has also disadvanteges. When its clowdy outside it causes unnecessary battery consumption.
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I come from a rather sunny country (greece) so I really missed this!
Anyway, those PDAs have actually very low brightness screens. In a bright day you cant actually see anything. On the other hand, I have yet to see a rainy/cloudy day that requires a reduction to the maximum brightness level. Overall I think that a time scheduled solution should be the best solution for no sensor-equipped devices.
papajohn said:
I come from a rather sunny country (greece) so I really missed this!
Anyway, those PDAs have actually very low brightness screens. In a bright day you cant actually see anything. On the other hand, I have yet to see a rainy/cloudy day that requires a reduction to the maximum brightness level. Overall I think that a time scheduled solution should be the best solution for no sensor-equipped devices.
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I second that! Even though I'm not from Greece but it's never too bright during the day. Right now my solution is to map the camera button to backlight so I can change it quickly.
Changing the brightness according to the time of day would not be as helpful as changing it according to the ambient light level. If you walk inside a dimly lit building during the day, you don't need the backlight to be as bright as if you were outside. Also, even outside, a cloudy day can be considerably dimmer than a sunny day.
jfeldredge said:
Changing the brightness according to the time of day would not be as helpful as changing it according to the ambient light level. If you walk inside a dimly lit building during the day, you don't need the backlight to be as bright as if you were outside. Also, even outside, a cloudy day can be considerably dimmer than a sunny day.
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I totally agree, but given the fact that there is no ambient light sensor in our devices I dont think that we can do any better. Two scales, one for day and one for night and we are OK for most cases. Yes, as you point out this strategy fails but it is better than:
1. No brightness change at all
2. Manual changes.
papajohn said:
I totally agree, but given the fact that there is no ambient light sensor in our devices I dont think that we can do any better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the crux. Some devices especially the newer ones have a camera on the front. I'm no photo-expert but i think every camera is a "ambient light sensor".
The camera also reacts on different light conditions. You can see this by turning on the fps function. But i agree that it would be a lot of work.
Maybe we have to wait till more people and programmers own htcs with such bad displays like the polaris.
Titan Photo Sensor
I found myself thinking about this auto-backlight topic on my way home tonight after a long trip using my 8600 as a GPS. The screen went from being a clearly-visible screen during the day portion of the trip to a flashlight in my eyes at night. While I knew I could adjust the backlighting manually, I didn't want to mess with it while driving. Also, living in Arizona, I can barely make out the screen when in daylight unless the screen is on maximum brightness, but max brightness is horrible on battery life, so I would rather not set it to that by default.
Anyway, the Titan has a photo sensor on the keyboard which is used to determine dim lighting conditions and automatically illuminate the keyboard. I'm not sure if the exact lighting value being detected by the photo sensor can be read, but if it can be, then it should be relatively easy to write an application that would automatically adjust the backlight setting whenever the keyboard is slid open.
The application could both use location-based sunrise/sunset algorithms to set the default backlight value based on time of day, and also allow the setting to be overridden momentarily (perhaps only until the screen is turned off again) by opening the keyboard and sampling the ambient lighting conditions.
This app was designed to improve upon the backlight management capabilities of the Omnia (*May* also work on HTC models). Currently the "auto backlight" function on the Omnia i910 is too sensitive, and ends up cranking the backlight up even in low-light situations where it isn't needed. This results in wasted battery power.
Mode 1 (Hi-Low Manual) - If the current light level meets or exceeds the set threshold, the backlight will be set to 12 (maximum). If the current light level falls below the threshold, the backlight will be set to 1 (minimum).
Mode 2 (Manual / Auto) - Same as above, but if the light meets or exceeds the threshold, the backlight will be set to auto. If the light level falls below the threshold, the backlight is set to manual (whatever value is currently set for manual backlight will be used).
The Threshold setting has 4 marks -- dark, dim, normal and bright. These are pretty subjective, but "bright" has been working pretty well for me in bright light.
Status shows the currently active mode, the approximate light level in lumens and the current brightness (dark, dim, normal, bright), which is essentially just a translation of lumen level.
The UI and installation process is crap. This is not meant to be anything close to a finished product -- just a proof of concept to see if this interests anyone and solves the problem. Backlight management will continue if the app is minimized. Shutting down the app will cease backlight management.
This was developed on an Omnia i910 using Adryn's 6.5 / 2.0 CF03. It should work on any flavor of Omnia i910. It may work on HTC models as well, though I haven't been able to test.
Installation: Unzip the attachment. Copy the two files to any spot on your Omnia. Launch Smartbacklight.exe.
Please let me know how this works for people. So far it seems to be doing a decent job of saving my battery and eyesight in and out of sunlight.
I proposed something like this over at modaco a while back but didnt (and still dont) Have the knowlage of prgramming for mobiles required to do anything about it of course this was back when the supid screen wouldnt auto rotate if you force dimmed the screen (lower than the lowest setting) the backlight on the omnia is quite frustrating to say the least It really makes you envy the AMOLED display on the omnia2 but then again iphone zelots will even envy that
Ill give it a spin myself but i reccomend you bring this project over to omnia.modaco.com or samsung-omnia.org you will probbly get a better response.
Ps sorry have to go no time to fix spelling or puncuate
A very useful app for Omnia. The concept is definitely smart. Please continue the project. The current UI is not that bad, just need a little more work on settings.
can we have a screenshot ?
How is this different from LUMOS?
Nagrom Nniuq said:
How is this different from LUMOS?
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Does LUMOS support the Omnia?
normally yes
Interesting. Didn't get that from the readme.
- supports HTC Raphael, Diamond, Blackstone and Topaz
- should support Rhodium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll pull it down and take a peek.
"Can't find PInvoke DLL HTCUtil.dll"
Hi!
I wonder if there is a way to lower the backlight levels on auto adjust (or increase for those who think its still not bright enough). Point is I think having the backlight on generally lower levels will naturally increase battery life. I know I can change the the brightness to a fixed level that suits me - but that would just be right for the current situation. I still want it to adjust to different lighting situations. Ideas?
It would be nice if it was possible to change how dim the backlight gets on total darkness and how bright it gets on your average sunny day.
I've been messing around with the reg to see if I could find max and min values but I can only change manual settings, not auto mode using the light sensor.
One note though: The sensor itself uses battery to measure ambient light. That being said, if you spend most of the day under a constant light source (say an office) manually dimming the device should consume less energy since the sensor is not doing much good for you anyway.
I guess it's not your case. I had this app on my Cruise to change backlight intensity. never used until now. it works on leo (running 1.48 but that should not matter) and changes backlight in 25% increments. You can copy a shortcut to the startmenu and add a quick link to your home tab or map it to a hard or soft button somehow.
I wold really like to know how to change max and min levels on auto backlight.
Try Lumos - it's a backlight replacement that allows you to customise how you want your auto backlight to work, ie. what the minimum/maximum brightness is, how fast the backlight changes, etc.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=450318
Seems to work fine. Still some tunning to do. Thanks!
I'm using Lumos now and it works great! Simple to set up and easy to customize. Thanks for the hint!
lumos is great but I found it was draining the battery quite fast on the leo.
Admittedly I was using it with the wm6.5 Check for active programme only setting. I never tested it to see if it worked without checking that box.
As far as I can tell by now the batterylife appears to be rather better than before. I haven't put in any application exceptions and didn't check the one checkbox in the settings tab. I also use a custom curve where the backlight stays at 30% until the sensor hits about 400 (30% is plenty in my opinion and still brighter than my friend's iphone in normal light condition inside).
you should try AutoLight http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=548402
it works fine on Leo
I really like the auto brightness feature, but it's consistently too bright for my taste.
Is there a mod or tweak out there that will allow me to lower/adjust my automatic brightness levels to save some battery life?
(Currently running Blackhole 3.0 / DL09, will go to Blackhole 4.0 once it's out tomorrow)
anybody have any ideas
Unless you know how to modify the kernel source (which I believe is written in C, correct me if I'm wrong devs) or modify some file that is the delegate for the ambient light sensor, you're SOL buddy.
Its probably hardwired into the kernel, would be my guess.
Hmmm, I thought automatic meant automatic. My bad. J/K
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Yes, automatically too bright in most situations. Yet not bright enough in sunlight.
I almost need to cover the light sensor some to fool it.
This is where Samsung fumbles. Their software is poor. Whomever is writing the code, set the light sensor to brightness conversion wrong. At least on DL30 they fixed one mess up. On the original rom, when you plugged in external power, the brightness would go to a fixxed level. If you were outside in a car and plug in power, it would dim the display. Indoors at night, plug in power, and it would BRIGHTEN the display. What's up with that.
worwig said:
Yes, automatically too bright in most situations. Yet not bright enough in sunlight.
I almost need to cover the light sensor some to fool it.
This is where Samsung fumbles. Their software is poor. Whomever is writing the code, set the light sensor to brightness conversion wrong. At least on DL30 they fixed one mess up. On the original rom, when you plugged in external power, the brightness would go to a fixxed level. If you were outside in a car and plug in power, it would dim the display. Indoors at night, plug in power, and it would BRIGHTEN the display. What's up with that.
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Whats wrong with manually changing it? It doesnt even take 5 seconds to change the level.
Kaze105 said:
Whats wrong with manually changing it? It doesnt even take 5 seconds to change the level.
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Exactly. Why would you expect your phone to automatically make your life easier or function at an optimum level?
Kaze105 said:
Whats wrong with manually changing it? It doesnt even take 5 seconds to change the level.
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Click to collapse
What's the purpose of having a light sensor if it never works?
Often when I pop my phone open to do a specific task, '5 seconds' is about as long as it would have taken to do that whole task. And it's just annoying to unlock the screen, begin to attempt doing something, and then notice 'oh hey, the screen is basically unseeable!' and have to interrupt whatever you're doing. Or, even worse, when you're going from place to place and go through areas that are lighter and darker, forcing you to keep interrupting your work.
worwig said:
Yes, automatically too bright in most situations. Yet not bright enough in sunlight.
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Click to collapse
KitsuneKnight said:
What's the purpose of having a light sensor if it never works?
Often when I pop my phone open to do a specific task, '5 seconds' is about as long as it would have taken to do that whole task.
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Click to collapse
You guys nailed it. The screen is far brighter than I need while indoors at the office, but step outside and it just doesn't keep up with the bright Colorado sun (I can adjust it manually to a level that can be seen in sunlight just fine).
I could spend 5 secs adjusting the backlight each time the light environment changes, but why not spend 30 min optimizing the auto brightness levels and then never have to worry about it...
I know with my Moto Droid, someone had made a code that altered a particular file to change the lowest brightness level, but I have yet to see that for the Fascinate. It's a shame since the Fascinate's screen is so much nicer, but not set up optimally.
I know some dev's had also integrated the ability to change the auto brightness levels within custom ROMs for the Moto Droid. That'd be a great feature on the Fascinate!
KitsuneKnight said:
What's the purpose of having a light sensor if it never works?
Often when I pop my phone open to do a specific task, '5 seconds' is about as long as it would have taken to do that whole task. And it's just annoying to unlock the screen, begin to attempt doing something, and then notice 'oh hey, the screen is basically unseeable!' and have to interrupt whatever you're doing. Or, even worse, when you're going from place to place and go through areas that are lighter and darker, forcing you to keep interrupting your work.
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That is to peoples own preference. I use auto most of the time and its fine. Doesn't work would indicate it doesn't change the brightness at all.
You can't expect it to auto sense it to every persons liking. Also does power control change it so you can see the screen, cause that doesn't take '5 seconds'
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
spenceuiuc said:
I really like the auto brightness feature, but it's consistently too bright for my taste.
Is there a mod or tweak out there that will allow me to lower/adjust my automatic brightness levels to save some battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Screen Filter - its in the app store. With screen filter applied I keep my phone set to auto and screen filter reduces that more - in my case 50% more.
Well in the DL30 rom you don't have to go to the settings menu to change the brightness, just press and hold on the notification bar and then slide left and right to change the brightness.
Zong00 said:
Try Screen Filter - its in the app store. With screen filter applied I keep my phone set to auto and screen filter reduces that more - in my case 50% more.
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Ill check that out. Thanks!