Database Users

App Suggestion: Auto Brightness Control Using 3g Camera

Hi folks, today I was lamenting the fact that my Hermes (and many other HTC phones for that matter) has no automatic brightness control. This results in me using it on max brightness all the time, which of course eats through the battery and is mostly unnecessary (except in bright sunlight). Then the thought occurred to me that an app could be written that used the 3g camera in order to detect brightness.
While I have an IT background (including a large amount of programming), I have no experience with Windows mobile, and think this is probably not the place to start doing WM apps. However, I thought that perhaps someone else would think this is a good idea, so thought I would make the suggestion. Reading the camera would of course use some battery, but not nearly so much as running the screen at high brightness to avoid having to adjust it manually all the time...I also read the other day that MS is planning to use the camera for orientation control (instead of an accelerometer) in WM7, so I guess this would indicate that they don't suck batteries that badly...at any rate, you wouldn't need to read it constantly...once every second or two would no doubt be sufficient...
To extend the idea further, you could also use differences in brightness between the main and 3g camera to do things like proximity sensing to switch off the screen when the phone is next to your head or in a pocket automatically.
Any thoughts?

Nice idea, but I think that the amount of battery saved will be much less than the amount consumed be having the camera on all the time plus CPU processing power required for the camera.
Now a dedicated light sensor would of course be a different story.....last time I enjoyed one on a WM device was on the good old Ipaq 3970.....brilliant device at the time (hardware wise, at least)

I did have a think about this, is there a way we can test battery consumption with camera on? Remember that nothing would be drawn to the screen by the app, and you wouldn't actually have to run the camera constantly necessarily, just long enough to get an image (you wouldn't even have to do all the auto adjustment it does when you're trying to take a picture like gaining up the sensor in the dark etc...you'd wanna open it up with constant settings each time). I'm pretty sure that the camera can write directly to memory without accessing the CPU (DMA)...and you wouldn't need to actually process the image at all...

Very off-topic...but are you "est in horto"????

haha took me a minute but LOL been years since I took the course...sadly my idea isn't getting the kinda interest i'd hoped though...maybe one of these days i'll have to learn wm6 development after all :-(

I suspect with anything using the camera will be the power-drain. For it to be responsive enought it will have to have the camera on either constantly or very frequently. The kaiser battery is bad enough as it is.
Yeah, good old caecillius. Shame that vesuvius got him. shed a tear I did. ;D

It needn't constantly test the camera...
I have such an application on my palm OS treo 600.
It's called BrightCam and you can assign a hotkey to run it.
It only runs on command,
checks the ambient light using the camera (regular not 3G in this instance),
adjusts the screen brightness accordingly - et voila...
could be nice to have this functionality in WM too.

would u be kind enough to share it

http://mytreo.net/downloads/brightcam,236.html

RunEveryDay
Maybe it can be done by RunEveryDay.
Not as elegant as the camera solution....but maybe easier to realize.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2558219#post2558219

HOW DO I CALIBRATE MY GYROSCOPE? [caps]

Im getting really pissed off here, i apologize but i need a solution
Samsung s4, I9505 with latest Cyanogenmod flashed.
Noticed that my phone is drifting to the right every time i play a game or using Google cardboard.
any way to fix this?

I have the same issue on the i9515 (S4 VE).
When holding the phone still and straight during a cardboard app:
the view rotates continuously
the horizon is at an angle
I've tried:
Calibrating gyroscope using *#0*#
Calibrating magnetic sensor using *#0*#
Calibrating using GPS status app
calibrating by moving the device in a "figure 8" shape several times
All to no avail. Note that all testing apps and the *#0*# show that the sensors work perfectly, and I don't have problems in other apps. So maybe it's a cardboard-specific issue?
---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:37 PM ----------
In addition: I tested using an app called "Hang gliding" by i-mmersive. This is a VR app, but not cardboard. It doesn't have the symptoms above. Hence it seems to be a cardboard-specific issue indeed.

The drift is actually being caused by the magnet in the cardboard headset.. And not all VR apps take the drift caused by the magnet into account while calibrating the gyroscope..You can either a)remove the magnet or b)use a second magnet at the opposite end to neutralize the effect caused by the first magnet(better option)

No it is not caused by the magnet in the google cardboard.
Harry5233 said:
The drift is actually being caused by the magnet in the cardboard headset.. And not all VR apps take the drift caused by the magnet into account while calibrating the gyroscope..You can either a)remove the magnet or b)use a second magnet at the opposite end to neutralize the effect caused by the first magnet(better option)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please verify things before proclaiming as matter of fact.
I can confirm this is occurring without any cardboard magnets. I have plastic version of Google cardboard that has no magnets and it still happens.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/59532/how-can-i-calibrate-the-tilting-sensor-on-android
Try the suggestions given on the page and next time, try searching Google. This was one of the top five results on the page.

I too have experienced constant drift in VR apps, and I also am not using any magnets (I built mine out of a cardboard box and some hobby-lobby lenses). After downloading a dozen calibration apps from Play Store and the problem not going away, I finally tried something that fixed my drift problem:
1. Start Google Cardboard
2. Notice the drifting
3. Notice your hands are most likely shaking
4. Set the phone down so that the gyro has a chance to steady itself
5. Pick phone back up
6. Notice no more drifting
7. Rejoice!

For everyone that has the drift problem...
1. download cardboard app form google play store
2. find a 3d headset QR code and use it with your cardboard app
Worked for me..

I have notice this as well. The worst is the shaking. *NOTE: This doea not happen when in Oculus GearVR. I used a calibration testing app and noticed my accelerometer to be constantly on the run. I grabbed "Accelerometer Calibration Free" off of the play store and there was a SLIGHT improvement I also turned my filters on sensors all the way up with another app but that was questionable so I dont want to slander or promote. In the end for Verizon at least I believe the answer to be AS CUSTOMERS WE ARE ALL TO DUMB TO CALIBRATE OR HAVE THE ACCESS TO. I mean really this is what they are saying when we get locked out of general settings like calibration, and have all access codes to such features locked. I think big red got to big for their own britches. So if you want to calibrate root and re rom. If the custome rom locks you out......well maybe they are fatening up to. Or just not paying attention to detail... ANOTHER NOTE* IF YOU RUN CALIBRATION OR TEST APPS YOU WILL SEE UNCALIBRATED SENSORS THIS IS NORMAL AND IS A SECONDARY SENSOR(s) THAT PROVIDES RAW DATA TO THE SYSTEM......So don't trip.

I have redmi 4. It seems that cardboard uses one of device cameras as a additianal signal to stabilize image screen. Unfortunately, in redmi 4 cardboard takes signal from front camera - this camera is usually closed by vr-headset. Who knows, maybe some of you have the same problem.

Weird issue with my gs5
So on my galaxy s5 I've noticed there is a really occuring bug where anything that needs a gyroscope like ar games vr apps and especially vr YouTube videos the veiw moves when I'm not moving at all and I've noticed it with pokemon go as well can someone help me I've tried calibratin my gyro but that never worked

[Q] Please help with checking Wear compasses

Hi,
I am working on an app which requires the watch compass. While it seems to work as expected on Samsung Gear Live I get nothing than problems when running it on Sony SWR50 Smartwatch. Same happens with all tested apps from Play Store. There are situations where the compass works as should, but just minutes later it displays just crap or the value displayed is almost frozen. And it got even more worse from firmware version 4.4W2 to 5.0.1. No idea about behaviour of the other watch models actually available.
For getting a more clear view on usability of watch compasses in general I have written a little app named CompassTest which implements all three methods of reading the compass which I am aware of. All three results will be displayed together on one screen:
- sensor TYPE_ORIENTATION (no longer recommended for new apps)
- sensor TYPE_ROTATION_VECTOR
- sensors TYPE_ACCELEROMETER und TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD
If you want to support me then please install CompassTest onto your phone, start the app on your watch and check the results being displayed for plausability. All three values should be almost the same, the flicker on the 3rd value is normal as there is no dampening built in.
Please also calibrate your sensors by moving the watch several times in shape of an 8 and in all three axis.
Check the displayed results against a normal compass or the north direction if you know it from elsewhere.
Please report your results here with your watch model and short description of behaviour.
Thank you in advance,
Gerd

Compass and Level Calibration

Hi All,
Have you tried compass and level tools among ZTE tools? First of all I waved 8 I don't know how many times till it was "calibrated". If it really was. I have doubts because result is far from the accurate. Secondly I tried level tool and spirit level is not needed to say that it shows wrong values. Thirdly camera in manual mod displays a spirit level which also incorrect. Do you have bad or good experiences with these tools? Can anyone know how can level be calibrated?

I have the same problem on my Axon 7. The Y axis is about 5 degrees off.
I can't find any way how to calibrate without root. Did you find a solution or can anyone else help?

Hi,
It looks that compass works correctly more or less. Regarding spirit level. No I haven't got permanent solution. All program can calibrate level. Some of them can store calibration result but of course it isn't effective generally. I tested all sensors with different programs and they seem good. I don't have other A7 so I can compare the values to other brands. Try GPS Status and Toolbox to test sensors.
I worry a bit that VR won't work correctly but I think it will have own calibration method.

Is the compass/magnetometer supposed to be this inaccurate?

Hey all,
Recently got this phone, and I discovered it doesn't have a gyroscope (Kinda took that for granted, should have researched before purchase).
I like to do VR stuff once in a while, so I found the option of using the Xposed module VirtualSensor.
It seems to work, only it's horribly inaccurate. I understand that combining the accelerometer with the compass/magnetometer will never be as accurate as a gyroscope, but I don't think it should be this bad.
I looked further into it, and it appears that my magnetometer is not as accurate as I would like it to be. I found multiple sources that don't even list the compass/magnetometer as a real sensor, is this true?
Anyway, using Sensor Kinetics (app) I monitored the magnetometer (it shows the same behavior using different apps). I wanted to post screenshots but as a new member apparently I can't.
I've calibrated my sensor by using the 8-motion and I measured at different locations, but the z-axis is always weird. There's some sort of disturbance in a pattern, it could be hardware or software. Every second or so there's a significant peak in the z-axis, jumping from -43 microT to -30 microT or even higher. (The magnitude of the graph is of course orientation dependent, but the accuracy shouldn't be this bad). The peaks in the z-axis match up with sudden yanks while using VirtualSensor (my accelerometer is stable).
Could anybody with a P9 Lite please confirm if they have a similar disturbance on their magnetic sensor as well, or do I have a faulty phone?