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Hi,
why not automatically adjust the universal's background light by its light sensor? I suppose this must be possible (ok, only in "notebook mode", not in "PDA mode"). Or is the information given by the sensor binary: "dark" / "bright"?
I would highly appreciate if the device's display would shine bright in the sunshine and dimmed at night. I'm not a windows mobile developer, but I believe this feature should be possible.
Best regards,
tomestos
The backlight makes almost no difference at all when the device is in direct sunlight... It would be really nice to have the backlight dim a little in dark surroundings though. As far as I know the light sensor on the phone is only 'dark', 'light', but even that is fairly useful.
Is the sensor in the registry anywhere and can its values be edited? I find it doesnt come on in low ambient light enviroments when it would be usefull.
JAmes
I'm interested in it, too! It's would be beautiful, if the sensor switches between light and dark! But I didn't find s.th. in the registry at all!
I had found s.th in the registry like that: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Backlight\AutoSensor
Perhaps it will be helpful for the project
The HP Jornada 928 had such a sensor to control the backlighting, and I found it invaluable - especially in an open top sports car.
However, a manager for their UK support centre told me that they got so many complaints about it (or user problems with it) that they removed it from later/Compaq models.
astage said:
The HP Jornada 928 had such a sensor to control the backlighting, and I found it invaluable - especially in an open top sports car.
However, a manager for their UK support centre told me that they got so many complaints about it (or user problems with it) that they removed it from later/Compaq models.
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Not true... My old HP hx4700 still had this feature. And indeed, it is indispensible. Very handy when checking your stuff in the open air. Only downside is when you have a shadow cast over your PDA (say: a window stile or something). Then it would brighten and darken, depending on whether or not the shadow obscured the sensor or not.
On second thoughts: I can imagine where the support calls were coming from...
Nobody an idea?
Hi everybody,
I want to bump this topic up, cause there are so many possibilities in a usable light sensor.
For example, i have found an alarm clock, that can go to "snooze mode" if it senses, that lamp in its ambience has been turned on.
And so on, and so on...
So how to read out from the Windows kernel the state of the light sensor??
DOMy
Hey, aren't there any developers??
Pease, couldn't we solve the problem of accessing to the lightsensor?
DOMy
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.
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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.
I've just bought a Touch 3G and as far as I can tell the Auto setting for the Backlight doesn't seem to do anything. As my last phone (P3300) didn't have this, what should I be expecting to happen? I've tried putting a finger over what I think is the sensor (right hand "LED", beside speaker) and nothing changes.
Thanks, W.
Did you set Auto adjust backlight in system menu?
Imho it is a really subtle effect. You can see it a bit when holding the light sensor (right to the speaker) to a bright light source. The display then gets a little bit brighter.
If you would like to increase the effect or customize the stepping, try g-light ( http://www.ageye.de/index.php?s=glight/about ), it lets you set specific values for each reported value from the sensor, and set the polling interval
Jade auto adjust is poor
I had the diamond prior to purchasing the jade. The diamond auto light adjust was very noticeable compared to the jade. In fact I didn't think the Jade even had a light sensor until one of the other users pointed it out.
After a little research I found this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=450318
I used it on my Jade and it works great. One of my problems with the diamond was the fact that the light would not automatically dim enough in low light conditions.
Thanks for the link. Now using G-Light which works pretty well. Not perfect as its sometimes a bit erratic but certainly makes better use of the light-sensor than HTC!
I've just started to dive into CM 7's light sensor options:
Menu > Settings > CyanogenMod settings > Display > Automatic backlight
The default settings seem to be tuned for a device that detects 1-10240 lux.
Reading the raw sensor value on the "Edit other levels..." option I'm only able to max the sensor to 1023. Also, the values it can actually detect are a little odd... I've only seen values of 1, 3, 5, 17, 33, 172, 299, 326, 344, and 1023 lux.
I just got this wonderful phone on Monday, so I just wanted to double check these are the values other MT4G's get as well. If you're into this kinda stuff and want to check, you can see it under CyanogenMod settings or if you aren't on CM there's an app on the market called Light Tester which will also report sensor values.
Are you seeing the same thing I'm seeing?
If these are indeed regular values for the MT4G then this issue on CM's issue tracker could use some votes:
http://code.google.com/p/cyanogenmod/issues/detail?id=2298
If you also have a different device with a light sensor you input would be interesting as well!
Back to modifying these levels. If I find a good combination of options I'll post 'em for you guys.
Hello!
I'm just trying to find the Light Tester app on the market but i can't. If you send me the app, i would be glad to give you my feedback about how my sensor capabilities develops on my HTC Wildfire.
Thanks!
After fiddling with these settings for a few days and discovering what they mean, I have come up with a set of values that suit me best.
In very low light conditions I prefer my screen to be as dim as possible, but fully bright when outside or even near a window or also in the car.
And everything in between is set pretty well IMO
The only thing that throws it off is the fact that CM is a little buggy in this area, and I find that it lags a little or takes a screen reset (which just consists of turning it off and back on via the power button) to get a correct ambient light to value reading).
LOL would be a good test, my new phone, from craigslist, is going to black screen everytime i make a call, the only way to fix is it to put a flash light up to the senor or plug it into the wall or USB.
yay craigslist as the best excuse EVER to not give support to someone, NEW phone and tmobile nore HTC will offer any help. They all say they cant support me cause i didn't buy it from tmobile.
My phone only seems to make it up to 640. This was with my phone right next to a bright CFL bulb. Not sure if my screen protector is limiting the range of the sensor.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
I noticed in CM7.0.2 that I am now able to get the full range of values from 20-10240. Before my light sensor would only show from 20-640. So, whatever bug was causing this looks to have been squashed.
There was a bug introduced by cm7's kernel a while back which I also used (I thought cm7 team knew better, oh well). It has been fixed by Zinx for cm7 and I have the same fix in my kernels also.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
So I've been doing some general googling, and I haven't come across a good solution for my issue, so I thought I would post it here. Nexus 7 is mounted on the dash of my car. Powers on and powers off (deep sleep), connects to hotspot fine, generally, is working great. HOWEVER, there is one feature that I would love to be able to replicate from OEM in dash systems that I've seen. I would like the screen to dim when the unit isn't actively being used. Not time out and go to sleep, just dim (or maybe even turn off the LED backlight). Then, when I tap the screen, I want the screen to come back to automatic brightness mode based on the ambient light sensor. I've found plenty of apps that will turn the screen on or off with various gestures and such, but they all seem to require disabling or otherwise changing the way the ambient light sensor works. From those of you that use these in your car, I'm hoping that you have some suggestions. Thanks in advance.
bigdogbts said:
So I've been doing some general googling, and I haven't come across a good solution for my issue, so I thought I would post it here. Nexus 7 is mounted on the dash of my car. Powers on and powers off (deep sleep), connects to hotspot fine, generally, is working great. HOWEVER, there is one feature that I would love to be able to replicate from OEM in dash systems that I've seen. I would like the screen to dim when the unit isn't actively being used. Not time out and go to sleep, just dim (or maybe even turn off the LED backlight). Then, when I tap the screen, I want the screen to come back to automatic brightness mode based on the ambient light sensor. I've found plenty of apps that will turn the screen on or off with various gestures and such, but they all seem to require disabling or otherwise changing the way the ambient light sensor works. From those of you that use these in your car, I'm hoping that you have some suggestions. Thanks in advance.
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Hi, bigdogbts...
What you suggest certainly sounds feasible. I have no immediate solution, just some ideas/pointers.
Three pieces of software come to mind...
A Custom Launcher such as Apex or Nova. These give you a double tap gesture on the screen, which you can associate with some action to run... app, shortcut or 'activity'.
Lux Auto Brightness.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux
This is capable of reducing the screen brightness right down to zero, such that the device looks likes it's turned off.
Tasker.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm
An app which is capable of automating all sorts of things on an Android device. You can associate an action instigated by the the user with a desired objective. Unfortunately, it has a bit of a steep learning curve... I bought it myself a few months ago, and I still haven't got around to really fully understanding it.
I suspect that if you can 'associate' Lux Auto Brightness (set with some pre-arranged brightness settings, ie., a completely dark screen) with a specified action (like double tapping the screen) with either Apex or Nova launchers (via gesture) or possibly with Tasker, maybe via a script...then you may be able to accomplish your goal.
As I've said, I think that what you're asking sounds possible... it's just a case of finding the right apps, and 'stitching' them all together. And maybe with a bit of tinkering with the apps I've mentioned, you can, hopefully, get something that works,
Good luck.
Rgrds,
Ged.
I think tasker can do something like that.