[REQUEST] Modding the LightSensor - Nexus One Android Development

Do you like the light Sensor on Nexus?
I didn't like it.
It's a very good feature, but it works strange.
It is slow in dimming and took already not enough light to the display.
Nexusdisplay is dark dark dark...
Does anybody know, how to tweak this sensor?
Or am I the only one who dislike it very much?

I just set my brightness manually. Done deal.

Perfect.
In the Night I'll put my sunglasses on or at a sunny day I take my nexus blind...
Wherefor is the sensor if it don't work proper?
There must be some settings for...

I think the light sensor works great but it would be even better if we can customize it a little bit. Something like scale up the screen brightness for each level of external light.
Or something like auto lock when it is totally dark (you put it into your pocket?).....but that would cause trouble if you want to use your phone in the theater

I think the light sensor is terrible. I have tried everything but it still seems very finicky on when it will work properly. I regularly go from low light to sunny outdoors and having the feature would properly would be awesome, especially since it worked fine on my last 2 phones and they arent even close to being a superphone.

Trying to make it transition smoother is something I've been meaning to try. The settings for this are in the source tree at frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/config.xml (I override this in my passion vendor overlay). You can tweak the values and rebuild framework-res to try it out.

oh cyanogen, You Are GOD!

Where we can find it?
I've searched the whole framework.

ha he meant the source tree for framework provided by google. not in the framework-res inside of the zip of the rom you are using.

two things I noticed about it:
1 It dims and brightens too quick, it should take an average light level over a longer time period
2 Our fluorescent lights in the office at work seem to confuse it, so that could mean that the lens is too focussed and if you hit one of the lights it goes too bright, miss and it goes too dim as you move around and/or the wavelength of the lights confuse it - though this problem may be more bearable if #1 above is fixed.

I gave up using the sensor. I use the power strip. the 3 settings work great for me.

Ssantos6981 said:
I gave up using the sensor. I use the power strip. the 3 settings work great for me.
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Click to collapse
Yea I mean why should it work? We only paid $530 for it ;/

spyz88 said:
Yea I mean why should it work? We only paid $530 for it ;/
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Click to collapse
Yes, these words are soooo true! They're absolut true.
And: It's not HTCs first device with such a sensor. It's not the first android Handset with such an sensor.
I can't understand, why they did such a thing!
@spyz88: I'll pray your words every time if i see this dumb dimming and flickering.

I too have noticed this problem, and have such, turned it off. Disappointing, yeah.
I hope someone can come up with some good idea/settings, to fix this like google should be doing already :/....
Thanks people

spyz88 said:
Yea I mean why should it work? We only paid $530 for it ;/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can pay £30,000 for a car and things still don't work properly.
Nature of the beast I'm afraid.

OK, we can put our heads down in the sand or we can try to make us happier with it.
Does anybody tells google/htc that this is crap?
Probably we can make it on our own.

yeah it doesn't work very well. Maybe sensitivity needs to be lowered somehow

I hate to say this because I always talk crap about the iphone, but the iphone does have a better way to auto dim the screen with the sensor.
I thought I had a problem because from the get go I installed a screen protector that lays over the sensor, but now I see that other people have the same issue.
It is funny because I can have the phone in one place, but if I change the angle the screen will dim or brighten.

the worst thing is , it comes in the way of reading constantly on your phone , and after two to three cycles of dim/bright , you would eventually give up and disable it. disappointing .
but i think the problem is it samples ambient light with long interval , and then average it in a way that is always behind what it should be

This has bothered me as well and I've been looking for an easy way to fix it.
It seems that the light sensor (or its driver?) is to sensitive or inaccurate. The reported LUX value can fluctuate a lot in constant surrounding light. There is also the possibility that one waves a hand in front of the sensor which can produce undesired brightness changes etc.
My idea:
PowerManagerService.java (frameworks/base/services/java/com/android/server) listens for light sensor changes with a SensorEventListener. Either directly or after (config_lightSensorWarmupTime) a method called lightSensorChangedLocked is called with the sensor value as parameter. This method sets the brightness.
Here we can add some low pass filtering to the sensor value before calling lightSensorChangedLocked. Maybe a simple average of the last 5 values or so will suffice? Maybe take time into consideration as well. Say average 5 or all values received in the last 20 seconds or so. There sure are room for improvements of my suggestions.
My message is that the issue is perfectly fixable and PowerManagerService.java is the file to fix it in.

Related

Screen problem: slightly visible moire-effect like pattern

I bought this phone 2 days ago, new, sealed, free from contract, and so far I love everything about it, except for this problem which I have found only today. I guess It was all the first excitement keeping me to notice earlier.
Like the thread's title says, it's like a perfect pattern across the screen, from edge to edge, consisting in perfect parallel 10-degrees-from-horizontal-oblique stripes. They are very very subtle and only visible on light backgrounds and more from looking from the upper part of the screen down.
Do not confuse them with the pixels matrix, whose density, by the way, is great. They are all right, and the effect described above seems to appear on a layer which is on top of those pixels.
To make an almost perfect comparison, this effect looks almost like the striped background from market.android.com (as seen on a computer), but with more subtle greish on white stripes inclined from right to left, and only like 10 degrees oblique from the horizontal. That is what's making me curious, why is that pattern oblique? If it were straight horizontals or verticals I would have confused them with the pixels arrays, and it would have been bearable. But like they are I can't stop but notice this pattern every time and it annoys me a lot! In GMail, Browser etc... all the apps with plain backgrounds...
It wouldn't appear on any close picture I tried to take, and I guess filming for you to see it isn't a good idea either, because you won't notice it. It's only visible with the naked eye, at a distance closer than 30 cm from the screen. It isn't also a problem of my eyes, because my wife is noticing it too.
Thank for any shared thought.
stnel said:
I bought this phone 2 days ago, new, sealed, free from contract, and so far I love everything about it, except for this problem which I have found only today. I guess It was all the first excitement keeping me to notice earlier.
Like the thread's title says, it's like a perfect pattern across the screen, from edge to edge, consisting in perfect parallel 10-degrees-from-horizontal-oblique stripes. They are very very subtle and only visible on light backgrounds and more from looking from the upper part of the screen down.
Do not confuse them with the pixels matrix, whose density, by the way, is great. They are all right, and the effect described above seems to appear on a layer which is on top of those pixels.
To make an almost perfect comparison, this effect looks almost like the striped background from market.android.com (as seen on a computer), but with more subtle greish on white stripes inclined from right to left, and only like 10 degrees oblique from the horizontal. That is what's making me curious, why is that pattern oblique? If it were straight horizontals or verticals I would have confused them with the pixels arrays, and it would have been bearable. But like they are I can't stop but notice this pattern every time and it annoys me a lot! In GMail, Browser etc... all the apps with plain backgrounds...
It wouldn't appear on any close picture I tried to take, and I guess filming for you to see it isn't a good idea either, because you won't notice it. It's only visible with the naked eye, at a distance closer than 30 cm from the screen. It isn't also a problem of my eyes, because my wife is noticing it too.
Thank for any shared thought.
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Click to collapse
Much better to send you're mobile to the store were you bought it. because as what i have know the problem is the LCD. that is what they called wire stripe or ribbon.... maybe that is the problem. Try it, there is noting to lose.....
I see that too, only on light (white) backgrounds. I thinks it's normal, you may ask your local Sony Ericsson customer service or a phone shop, but I don't think this is a production fault.
On a dark blackground it is purely invisible.
Try it with and without the Bravia engine enabled.
kirbygonzalo said:
Much better to send you're mobile to the store were you bought it. because as what i have know the problem is the LCD. that is what they called wire stripe or ribbon.... maybe that is the problem. Try it, there is noting to lose.....
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Click to collapse
kirbygonzalo, thanks but even googling it I couldn't find anything about wire stripe or ribbon.
sdk16420 said:
I see that too, only on light (white) backgrounds. I thinks it's normal, you may ask your local Sony Ericsson customer service or a phone shop, but I don't think this is a production fault.
On a dark blackground it is purely invisible.
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Click to collapse
sdk16420, thanks for sharing this, It is somehow a relief for me to know I'm not alone in this. Yet, I'll wait until next week to see if I can find more explanations, and then maybe I'll return it for a replace. It's especially bad for me, as I waited a lot to receive the silver one (a week or so), and I don't know if I can find another.
LenAsh said:
Try it with and without the Bravia engine enabled.
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Click to collapse
It doesn't depend on Bravia Engine, unfortunately. It was also the first thing that came into my mind, tried it several times, even with deactivating and rebooting, but the effect is persistent.
Again, it's only visible on light backgrounds, especially white and large ones (browser, gmail, etc). If you read this, please check yours also find some time to post a reply with the result. I would be very grateful.
Thanks!
I have the blue model but i can barely see that pattern with a screen flashlight (on full white) and i don't find it annoying at all in daily use of the phone.
You can check the screen from a new phone in a shop, to see if it looks like yours ... or you have a eagle eye
PS
check softpedia also
I think I can see what you're talking about on my Red Neo but only if I max the screen brightness and look really closesly (like practically inserting the Neo into my eye). 99.99% of the time I don't notice a thing.
I just followed your description and found the same with my neo, so I think it the LCD design. Not an issue to me indeed.
Does anyone have another phone model (e.g. Samsung, HTC) with a LCD touchscreen? Is it also visible on other phones?
sdk16420 said:
Does anyone have another phone model (e.g. Samsung, HTC) with a LCD touchscreen? Is it also visible on other phones?
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I have a Samsung Galaxy S with SAMOLED, a HTC Desire with S-LCD and an Asus Transformer with IPS LCD, and they all have better screens. The Desire's is the most problem free, whereas the Galaxy S has problems with screen burn-in (or image retention, like some are identifying it, but for me it's still like the old good plasma screen burn-in ), and the Transformer's has light bleeding. But, like I said, when put aside, the Neo's looks the worst.
I don't know if you noticed it already, but it comes with another "feature" that is so annoying: it stays always on auto brightness regardless of the custom level set, maxing that automation on that custom level. It's so annoying, cause it's always too dark for me, and being a "feature" it doesn't have also a switch for that. At least it has for Bravia....
stnel said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S with SAMOLED, a HTC Desire with S-LCD and an Asus Transformer with IPS LCD, and they all have better screens. The Desire's is the most problem free, whereas the Galaxy S has problems with screen burn-in (or image retention, like some are identifying it, but for me it's still like the old good plasma screen burn-in ), and the Transformer's has light bleeding. But, like I said, when put aside, the Neo's looks the worst.
I don't know if you noticed it already, but it comes with another "feature" that is so annoying: it stays always on auto brightness regardless of the custom level set, maxing that automation on that custom level. It's so annoying, cause it's always too dark for me, and being a "feature" it doesn't have also a switch for that. At least it has for Bravia....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I put brightness on 100%, and hold my finger on the light sensor, I don't see the screen getting darker. What does annoy me is that you can't make the brightness less than about 30%. I use widgetsoid for brightness adjustment, and the screen will only become darker than 30% if I hold my finger on top of the sensor. That sucks. I I want to sacve energy, I have to hold my hand there, while using the phone.
I don't see why people need the brightness that high anyways, aside from in some games with small hard to see details I'm perfectly fine with my brightness set at just 30% or even just 20%...heck I can still use the phone when the brightness is completely off though that does get a little hard to see everything.
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
I don't see why people need the brightness that high anyways, aside from in some games with small hard to see details I'm perfectly fine with my brightness set at just 30% or even just 20%...heck I can still use the phone when the brightness is completely off though that does get a little hard to see everything.
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Click to collapse
I use it a lot outside, and its sunlight legibility isn't as good as SAMOLEDs or others, but that I knew from reviews before the buy. If it wasn't for the problem in this thread, I wouldn't be so harsh on it.
LE I se new posters here. Do you noticed the problem described in the first post? Does it bother you?

Proximity sensor light

Just noticed today, in darkness the proximity sensor is visible as a faint, but distinct, red light on the phone when its active. Anyone else noticed this? Maybe mine has a faulty sensor.
If you activate the sensor, by making a call in darkness (or opening a text message, if you have direct call on) and looking above the sensor, do others have this visible light?
I've seen other people mention other models using near-IR as opposed to actual IR for the sensor, but I haven't seen anyone mention it for the S3 (which is surprising considering how popular it already is) which makes me think it could be just mine.
I am pretty sure it's not a fault, mine does it too.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA
Proximity sensor uses infrared which is the same light your tv remote uses.
You can't see infrared but due to technical reasons there are always a few light particles emitted / reflected as visible dark-red light.
It's the same as with ultraviolet (darklight); you can't see UV but it still glows faintly dark-purplish.
Cool thanks. I thought so. Very relieved all the same.
It was more worrying when it seemed to be there all the time when the screen was on (I had a message open at the time!)... It didn't even occur to me it might be the proximity sensor, since I forgot about direct call which was obviously activating it.
Anyone know if there some advantage to visible ones? I've seen ones before that aren't. Are visible ones more sensitive? Or cheaper?
d4fseeker said:
Proximity sensor uses infrared which is the same light your tv remote uses.
You can't see infrared but due to technical reasons there are always a few light particles emitted / reflected as visible dark-red light.
It's the same as with ultraviolet (darklight); you can't see UV but it still glows faintly dark-purplish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know remotes etc. emit very small amounts of visible light (I remember my fascination at 12 when I found this out ). But this is a lot stronger than I've ever seen on a remote. Were it as weak as a remote, I probably wouldn't have even noticed.
Hmm, usually non-visible IR should be less expensive since the wavelength is longer, however due to manufacturing it could still be slightly visible.
Near-IR could be more accurate since under direct sunlight you'll have tons of IR-light so the sensor could mistake it for your ear reflecting the light in certain conditions. Slight changes in the specutrum might prevent this from happening.
Does it really bother you? Because the proximity sensor is only on when you're on the phone in which case I usually keep it on my ear or in my pocket =)
[Edit]
Also, IR remotes should be quite a bit less light-intensive. They only need to pulse a light which the receiver captures while this one needs to illuminate your ear so the receptor can decide how far it is.
Compare it to holding a tealight candle to show others that you're there vs using a torchlight to illuminate the path for thm.
My proximity sensor is lit up all the time. Even when the screen is off. I only just noticed it now and did a search on Google. Does it sounds like it might be faulty? It wouldn't have any need to keep it on all the time and it would drain a small amount of power right?
Jaisah said:
My proximity sensor is lit up all the time. Even when the screen is off. I only just noticed it now and did a search on Google. Does it sounds like it might be faulty? It wouldn't have any need to keep it on all the time and it would drain a small amount of power right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have have the latest version of Viber installed? If so try uninstalling it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
do you have viber? if yes, then that's the one causing it.. the latest update has this bug..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Oh, you're right. I force stopped Viber and the light went away straight away. Soooo, I kinda wanna keep Viber, will it damage the proximity sensor if it stays lit? Will it effect my battery life significantly?
i dont know if it will cause damage.. but it will cause battery drain.. but not that much.. if you charge your phone at least once a day, then you should be fine.. and besides, a lot of people have already reported it to the devs, so im sure they will fix it in no time..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

[Q] Use camera with mini external LED Torch ?

I'm in Ultra/Note3/One Max keep changing my mind mode at the moment. Bought myself a cheap gel case for the Ultra off eBay to practice does it fit in my pocket scenarios lol.
Anyway, don't know why, but for some reason, I've always been fond of things like mega powerful or really small key torches. One of those things you feel like you should buy/keep handy just in-case even though you don't really need it. Must be the kid in me...
So, given the lack of flash... I was wondering how well taking low light photos would work using one of those mini (run on an AA battery) type torches with along with the phone. They typically sell for a few quid, attach to a keyfob etc. You can get even smaller single LED ones that run off button type batteries, but I'm assuming these would be too underpowered.
Would using an external LED torch result in images similar to an inbuilt 'Flash' (actually just LED, not really a flash...) or are there other factors that mean it just wouldn't be the same ?
How many lumens or whatever does a typical led flash pump out. Is the brightness controlled as part of the exposure process, or is it just switched on due to low lighting and exposure decided afterwards ?
Zuber said:
I'm in Ultra/Note3/One Max keep changing my mind mode at the moment. Bought myself a cheap gel case for the Ultra off eBay to practice does it fit in my pocket scenarios lol.
Anyway, don't know why, but for some reason, I've always been fond of things like mega powerful or really small key torches. One of those things you feel like you should buy/keep handy just in-case even though you don't really need it. Must be the kid in me...
So, given the lack of flash... I was wondering how well taking low light photos would work using one of those mini (run on an AA battery) type torches with along with the phone. They typically sell for a few quid, attach to a keyfob etc. You can get even smaller single LED ones that run off button type batteries, but I'm assuming these would be too underpowered.
Would using an external LED torch result in images similar to an inbuilt 'Flash' (actually just LED, not really a flash...) or are there other factors that mean it just wouldn't be the same ?
How many lumens or whatever does a typical led flash pump out. Is the brightness controlled as part of the exposure process, or is it just switched on due to low lighting and exposure decided afterwards ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A strobe light (light from your device) - Will use less power and will capture motion better, will have deeper and richer colours.
Always on lights - The good thing is, what you see is what you get. Using a torch or external power source, you'll know and see exactly what you'll be taking an image of. However you will also need to mess with ISO to capture an equal quality image as opposed to strobe. (motion blur)
- Using an app that can do this will require A LOT of time fiddling, and may lose the moment... But the end result could enable a better quality image.
If you can get a very bright external light source then it will be better than the LED on a phone.
Phone LED are about 50-70 lumen... hope this helps...
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trinityb4 said:
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Saw that.
So my question would be how would it compare to using a torch. Maybe with a diffusing material on it ?
By the way, plenty of cheap small waterproof torches around.
My main concern would be trying to take a photo with the giant Z Ultra with one hand and shining the torch with the other .....
RaindancerAU said:
My main concern would be trying to take a photo with the giant Z Ultra with one hand and shining the torch with the other .....
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Click to collapse
Don't think that would be an issue. We are talking small 1xAA torch, so torch is abot the size of your finger. Should be easy enough handle at same time as the phone if using both hands.
Zuber said:
Don't think that would be an issue. We are talking small 1xAA torch, so torch is abot the size of your finger. Should be easy enough handle at same time as the phone if using both hands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure ... I have enough problems taking a photo one handed with my Galaxy Nexus you see ....
I'm probably going to get a Honami as well anyway , so the Z Ultra will probably not need to perform many camera duties anyway and it wouldn't be for very long.
It's better to use filter of camera then having weird torch with Giant Smartphone,i really disappointed with camera(also lake of led flash) but now i mostly use filter in low light conditions, just my experience.
Sent from Public Toilet

Active Display needs to be a whole lot better

It's one of those features that I loved as soon as I heard about it in the original Moto X. I thought "that's real, useful, innovation." But the implementation in the 6P is poop. I can't reliably get the thing to work at all. As in, it works with movement, but I can't tell you how to reliably set it off. At all.
One other thing I've noticed is the screen is fully woken up by (I think) any touch on the screen when Active Display is on. Which seems very wasteful.
I'm guessing this is purely software because the sensors in the 6P are more than up to the task. I would also think it would be nice to have a setting to simply use the power button to, in essence, half wake the screen the way Active Display does. Then tapping on the notification will perform as normal.
Sound off if these issues are limited to just me. I actually hope they are.
Seems to work pretty well for me, i wouldn't say 100% but most times i pick up the phone, or take it out of my pocket.. it lights up
Laying down flat, picking up the device shows info.
Laying down flat, a little twist shows info.
Picking it up seems more reliable, but the nudge left or right when flat needs to be a decent "nudge". Otherwise it would be switching on constantly, which would be a waste.
And waking when touching any part of the screen when adisplay is showing is normal behavior.
Maybe when development moves ahead we'll have more control over it's behavior. I can see devs having fun with this feature.
+1 for the OP. I've been using the phone about a full day now and I've seen the active display like maybe 3 times, never when it really made any sense. Bummer.
Owned my phone less than 24hrs, installed a screen protector before using the phone. Ambient display want really working. I took the glass screen protector off, ambient display has come back. I'm wondering if the sensor is that sensitive.
Soulfulgrey said:
It's one of those features that I loved as soon as I heard about it in the original Moto X. I thought "that's real, useful, innovation." But the implementation in the 6P is poop. I can't reliably get the thing to work at all. As in, it works with movement, but I can't tell you how to reliably set it off. At all.
One other thing I've noticed is the screen is fully woken up by (I think) any touch on the screen when Active Display is on. Which seems very wasteful.
I'm guessing this is purely software because the sensors in the 6P are more than up to the task. I would also think it would be nice to have a setting to simply use the power button to, in essence, half wake the screen the way Active Display does. Then tapping on the notification will perform as normal.
Sound off if these issues are limited to just me. I actually hope they are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The touch layer and the actual display are 2 different pieces of hardware, you probably can't limit what portions of the touch layer are active, it's either on or off but that has nothing to do with what pixels are turned on. Hope that helps.
Just turned it on to test. Seems to light up when its supposed to. Turned it back off because I use android wear and don't need it.
My switching from Active Display (Moto X 2013) to Ambient Display (Nexus 6) was tough, but I got used to it. My 6p seems to not work as well or the same as my N6 did.
In the morning if I wake up before my alarm I would grab my N6 to activate the Ambient Display and see the clock, as well as my notifications (I get the weather in the morning) to see if there was anything urgent (text from a coworker, etc).
With my 6p when I pick it up, nothing seems to happen, or at least not as quickly as it did with my N6. N6 would show it on almost any movement, but the 6p requires it to be fully picked up all the way and almost vertical before it shows anything. Not sure if this is gyro or software related. If I pick it up from flat and rotate 90 degrees right (like it would be if it was sitting next to my bed), effectively making it vertical in landscape mode) nothing happens. If I hold it vertical in portrait, it shows me.
Just something to get used to, I guess.
Active display is rubbish on the 6P lol. That's coming from a user BTW, its just not reliable.
I agree with OP. I sat phone beside me and noticed it would light up when I got a new message. Then a few seconds after, without touching or moving it, it would light up again (no new anything happened), then it would light up again. Not sure what's waking it up, but quite annoying. Should absolutely be a software fix though.
johnhazelwood said:
I agree with OP. I sat phone beside me and noticed it would light up when I got a new message. Then a few seconds after, without touching or moving it, it would light up again (no new anything happened), then it would light up again. Not sure what's waking it up, but quite annoying. Should absolutely be a software fix though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one thing that is reliable for me! Lol. When a notification comes through, it will activate once, then turn off, then activate again shortly after. I'm not sure if it's mean to do this or not, but at least it's reliable.
I should make it clear though that in my short time with the device, it is a definite top quality phone. The Active Display just seems to be, for me at least, a noticeable deviation from the very high bar set by the rest of the device. I did read other reviewers with issues, but then, how much faith can you put in a 48 hour review. I've had mine for almost a week and still feel like I'm just getting to know it.
sluflyer06 said:
The touch layer and the actual display are 2 different pieces of hardware, you probably can't limit what portions of the touch layer are active, it's either on or off but that has nothing to do with what pixels are turned on. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True-ish. It is indeed possible to have a software solution that ignores certain touch events even though the hardware layer will consistently recognise touch events as long as the touch layer is active. If the Active Display becomes just another UI, then the notification icons/regions become touch targets and the rest of the screen can be written in software to not be touch targets and thus not respond to touch inputs.
I'm not sure what this method would look like in practice. So for example, when the Active Display has been activated, would there be a way to fully activate the screen by a touch method without touching a notification? Maybe a special region at the bottom of the screen? No idea. Just thinking out loud.
Coming from Active Display on the Droid Maxx, Ambient Display is very disappointing and actually leads to my emergency dialer engaging sometimes when the phone is in the pocket of looser pants. But it doesn't display when I would like it to, with just a nudge, like the Motorola implementation.
I've messed around with my dad's phone. He has the Moto X as well. I can literally just wave my hand in front of the screen and it comes on. I thought that was awesome. This phone does seem a bit inconvenient if I just want to quickly get the time or my notifications. Then again that's why I have a (smart)watch. Not sure where I'm going with this.
Good talk....
I've figured it out! Feeling quite pleased with myself.
Based on the responses of others, I tried using it slightly differently. Now, I figured out two instances which regularly and reliably activate the Active Display.
The first is when the phone is flat on a surface, if I pick it up to be perpendicular to the floor, either portrait or landscape seems fine, it will activate. I believe this actually works from almost any starting point as long as the end point is the phone being upright and vertical.
The second is with it again starting flat on the table. Holding it by the bottom of the phone, moving it semi-quickly across the table, only about 5 cm seems needed, and then stopping quickly. This is a strange one which I only found when I bumped it into something on the table. I have a case so was not bothered testing this repeatedly.
I know correct my first statement. The feature is not poop. Well, not total poop. There are other instances that will activate it but I don't know how to do them reproducibly. If that's a word.
Hope this helps someone.
RoyJ said:
I've messed around with my dad's phone. He has the Moto X as well. I can literally just wave my hand in front of the screen and it comes on. I thought that was awesome. This phone does seem a bit inconvenient if I just want to quickly get the time or my notifications. Then again that's why I have a (smart)watch. Not sure where I'm going with this.
Good talk....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats a pretty nifty idea, if its flat... give it a bit of " These aren't the droids you're looking for" to wake the screen.
Surely cant be that hard to do.........
..... i cant do it
My active display does nothing. Doesn't activate anything even shaking the phone.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Stretlow said:
Thats a pretty nifty idea, if its flat... give it a bit of " These aren't the droids you're looking for" to wake the screen.
Surely cant be that hard to do.........
..... i cant do it
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Click to collapse
The Moto X (2014 and after) does it as it has other sensors on the front, the 6P doesn't. However, the Moto X (2013) did it with Kitkat as it used the proximity sensor, which was less reliable but still effective, but this was removed in Lollipop. To be fair, ambient display doesn't work nearly as well as Moto's active display. I bet a dev could activate it via proximity sensor, should people want it enough.
Soulfulgrey said:
I've figured it out! Feeling quite pleased with myself.
Based on the responses of others, I tried using it slightly differently. Now, I figured out two instances which regularly and reliably activate the Active Display.
The first is when the phone is flat on a surface, if I pick it up to be perpendicular to the floor, either portrait or landscape seems fine, it will activate. I believe this actually works from almost any starting point as long as the end point is the phone being upright and vertical.
The second is with it again starting flat on the table. Holding it by the bottom of the phone, moving it semi-quickly across the table, only about 5 cm seems needed, and then stopping quickly. This is a strange one which I only found when I bumped it into something on the table. I have a case so was not bothered testing this repeatedly.
I know correct my first statement. The feature is not poop. Well, not total poop. There are other instances that will activate it but I don't know how to do them reproducibly. If that's a word.
Hope this helps someone.
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Click to collapse
When laying flat - give it a quick twist - about 45 degrees - and back again.
I see most don't agree with the implementation, but think about it. If it was more sensitive, it would be waking all the time. That's definitely less battery efficient.
Once you get used to it, it's not bad at all, and I can see devs adding more control over how it works - like a sensitivity setting.
Hint hint devs!
Phazmos said:
When laying flat - give it a quick twist - about 45 degrees - and back again.
I see most don't agree with the implementation, but think about it. If it was more sensitive, it would be waking all the time. That's definitely less battery efficient.
Once you get used to it, it's not bad at all, and I can see devs adding more control over how it works - like a sensitivity setting.
Hint hint devs!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tbh, the more I use it, the more I understand why it has this implementation and you are right, there would probably be a battery burden to make it more sensitive. I just wish they could have advertised it. Maybe a deep dive YouTube video or something.

3D Face Unlock: problem, issue, inaccurate

Hey, have this phone from yesterday, europe dual sim version. How is for you the 3d face unlock?
I feel it's often inaccurate and in these cases it it does not unlock the phone.
Also, when i am in a dark room wit a good light behind me it's often inaccurate and, again, in these cases it it does not unlock the phone always.
In fact, if you try to register your face in this last condition you will see the face very very dark and this is a problem obviously for the face unlock.
I remember this last same "dark" problem also with the P20 Pro sensor.
What you think? Any solutions? Maybe in next updates?
Edit 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/Huawei/comments/9rnmpa/mate_20_pro_face_unlock_issues/
Edit 2:
I'm having similar issues here.. It will work perfectly sometimes and then just doesn't
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UP
https://www.reddit.com/r/Huawei/comments/9rnmpa/mate_20_pro_face_unlock_issues/
Edit 2:
I'm having similar issues here.. It will work perfectly sometimes and then just doesn't
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Click to collapse
just dont register your face in bad lighting conditions where it cannot be registered properly. I dont understand your problem tbh. Face unlock is a combination of the infrared thing and the camera.... if you use your phone while sitting in front of a bright light you cannot expect it to work. its like having wet or dirty fingers and comlpaining fingerprint isnt working.
0alfred0 said:
just dont register your face in bad lighting conditions where it cannot be registered properly. I dont understand your problem tbh. Face unlock is a combination of the infrared thing and the camera.... if you use your phone while sitting in front of a bright light you cannot expect it to work. its like having wet or dirty fingers and comlpaining fingerprint isnt working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Conditions are good.
if you use your phone while sitting in front of a bright light
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.... behind of a bright light, as written in first post, in fact if i try to register face in this last condition face is almost dark, but in this case the infrared camera should not help anyway?
With my iphone x in the SAME condition the face unlock works ALWAYS instantly, so i can see the difference.
denzel09 said:
Conditions are good.
.... behind of a bright light, as written in first post, in fact if i try to register face in this last condition face is almost dark, but in this case the infrared camera should not help anyway?
With my iphone x in the SAME condition the face unlock works ALWAYS instantly, so i can see the difference.
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Click to collapse
Well if you register your face in good lighting and the unlock does not work in good lighting then there is probably something wrong. You should contact huawei about that.
If you are trying to create a bad lighting condition on purpose and then it doesnt work I am not sure why you do this. There is no point. If you are in everyday live, like in a bar or pub and the lighting is bad you have to expect that face unlock is not going to be the most reliable. Its that simple. Sitting at home and trying to push it to its limits does not benefit you at all.
It is not as secure nor the same technology as face ID so there is no point in comparing them. If FaceID is better you have to accept it. No update can change the hardware.... maybe it will be optimized but it is not going to improve by 100%.
Surely ambient light has nothing to do with the face unlock method used here, as the camera is searching for an IR dot pattern. If anything, I'd expect it to work better in the dark.
0alfred0 said:
Well if you register your face in good lighting and the unlock does not work in good lighting then there is probably something wrong. You should contact huawei about that.
If you are trying to create a bad lighting condition on purpose and then it doesnt work I am not sure why you do this. There is no point. If you are in everyday live, like in a bar or pub and the lighting is bad you have to expect that face unlock is not going to be the most reliable. Its that simple. Sitting at home and trying to push it to its limits does not benefit you at all.
It is not as secure nor the same technology as face ID so there is no point in comparing them. If FaceID is better you have to accept it. No update can change the hardware.... maybe it will be optimized but it is not going to improve by 100%.
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Click to collapse
It works in good light but it's not accurate like FaceID or also other 2D unlock tried until now. It's not accurate, for example, when I'm sitting in an armchair often it wants certain angles to unlock, etc..
I can understand your point about create "bad light condition". Until few days ago i had a One Plus 6 with 2D face unlock, but not only it, and in the same Mate 20 conditions i had no one single problem with angles or light behind me! Maybe it's a bit hard to explain..
David Horn said:
Surely ambient light has nothing to do with the face unlock method used here, as the camera is searching for an IR dot pattern. If anything, I'd expect it to work better in the dark.
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Click to collapse
In fact it is the same thing that I thought! "Better in the dark", but in the evening when there is an artificial light behind me, sitting in an armchair, the unlock starts to have a bit of difficulty. And instead it should be the opposite, it should work better.
In this situation if i try to register my face in fact i see my face really dark cause the light behind me goes exactly on the sensor. Same thing with P20 Pro sensor. Only with Huawei i have seen this "problem". Nor with Samsung, nor with One Plus nor with Pocophone, etc..
It's really strange.
Check the software/EMUI problem thread, see if anyone else is reporting it. Otherwise, it's news to me.
roosta said:
Check the software/EMUI problem thread, see if anyone else is reporting it. Otherwise, it's news to me.
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Click to collapse
I think no one until now. Like no one with P20 Pro. Surely it's not fast like Apple Face ID. In same conditions. Sure about this because i have both with me so...
denzel09 said:
In fact it is the same thing that I thought! "Better in the dark", but in the evening when there is an artificial light behind me, sitting in an armchair, the unlock starts to have a bit of difficulty. And instead it should be the opposite, it should work better.
In this situation if i try to register my face in fact i see my face really dark cause the light behind me goes exactly on the sensor. Same thing with P20 Pro sensor. Only with Huawei i have seen this "problem". Nor with Samsung, nor with One Plus nor with Pocophone, etc..
It's really strange.
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Click to collapse
for comparison. I just tested bad lighting with my mate 10 pro... worked just fine... immediate unlock
i am not sure about the IR thing. it should definately work with no light but i am not sure if it is able to "work against" light. if your light sends out inrared wavelengths it will definately interfere with the IR projector. I am pretty sure though it sends out infrared wavelengths since it gets hot.... heat=infrared light (that how heat cameras work).
denzel09 said:
I think no one until now. Like no one with P20 Pro. Surely it's not fast like Apple Face ID. In same conditions. Sure about this because i have both with me so...
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Click to collapse
Apple were the first to introduce dot-mapping (or whatever they call the technology) to scan all areas, from left to right, of the face. The android versions on phones is more watered down...but it seems Huawei are using their own software of facial mapping which I imagine is designed to work the same as Face ID on Apple...but as there's some bugs with the pre-releases, I'd potentially wait and update the phone in 3-4 weeks to see if it resolve the issue.
RoOSTA
0alfred0 said:
for comparison. I just tested bad lighting with my mate 10 pro... worked just fine... immediate unlock
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Click to collapse
It was perfect in my "condition" with mate 10 pro with light behind me and against the cam. Because it used only the frontal cam! When i tried to register my face with Mate 10 in "my condition" my face was no dark and clearly visible!
This IS a big difference and here there is an "error" starting from P20 Pro to Mate 20 Pro.
0alfred0 said:
i am not sure about the IR thing. it should definately work with no light but i am not sure if it is able to "work against" light. if your light sends out inrared wavelengths it will definately interfere with the IR projector. I am pretty sure though it sends out infrared wavelengths since it gets hot.... heat=infrared light (that how heat cameras work).
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Click to collapse
Perfect point of view. Problem is: with iPhone X the IR "thing" works PERFECT against light, etc..
roosta said:
Apple were the first to introduce dot-mapping (or whatever they call the technology) to scan all areas, from left to right, of the face. The android versions on phones is more watered down...but it seems Huawei are using their own software of facial mapping which I imagine is designed to work the same as Face ID on Apple...but as there's some bugs with the pre-releases, I'd potentially wait and update the phone in 3-4 weeks to see if it resolve the issue.
RoOSTA
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Click to collapse
Yes, completely agree with you.
But i have a little doubt, this last comes from P20 PRO, also this with light behind me and against the sensor shows me my face all "dark" and obviously no update "fixed" this. I remember with this phone in my situation was IMPOSSIBLE use the 2D face unlock.
Idk honestly if an update here can improve this kind of sensor. I hope!
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=77998095&postcount=83
Facial recognition evidently hates sunlight. If your face is side on to the sun it won't work, you have to either be in shadow or directly in the sun. The fingerprint scanner I'm also finding to be very hit and miss. I have just been out using it to take some photos, lost count of the number of times both methods of unlocking didn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit...
It seems to me like a directional or sensor spread issue,
If i hold the phone level with my eyes and head straight (straight neck) it works perfectly, if i'm at my desk with it in my hand looking down at it then it doesn't. If i raise my head and phone vertical as its giving me the 'recognising face' message then it unlocks just as i hit vertical/straight neck.
Problem is i look a t**t raising my phone every time i want to unlock it (looks like i'm checking myself out in a vanity mirror!!)
Had the iPhone XS before this and it worked flawlessly head down or not.
Can someone else who is having issues test this theory?
Edit......

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