Parts, Boards and the Rotator

[EvilDragon]

I think it's mostly the implementation.
If it would auto-learn, it might be better. I.e. if a user adjusts the backlight, it should remember the setting and the light and improve the auto-backlight in the future.

That might work after a few days.

 

[blazing_grey]

In my experience things like auto-backlighting exist not because any user likes them, but because they increase things like battery life numbers. So it looks to me that it's at least somewhat a marketing issue.

This said, I do notice a significant difference with my phone's battery life when it's allowed to dim its screen as it pleases. One wonders why they don't just install an adequate battery to begin with, but then I suppose it'd bulge the pocket of my skinny jeans too much and/or not fit in a pocket with my Pandora...

 

[Klumpen]

Isn't it crazy that the whole mobile industry offers dynamic/auto lighting in practically every device and not a single user likes it!

Just for the record: I don't like it either.

I usually turn this off and set the brightness to the lowest possible level until I need some more light.

 

[pyrat]

I think it's mostly the implementation.
If it would auto-learn, it might be better. I.e. if a user adjusts the backlight, it should remember the setting and the light and improve the auto-backlight in the future.

That might work after a few days.

The point is does the desired backlight depend only on the ambient light ?
Do you want the same backlight (in the same place and light) for reading or watching videos or playing or browsing the web or looking at maps...
I think yes, but if not then the input to the learning algorithm multiplies (ambient light + feature extraction from framebuffer? processes running ? devices opened? orientation of the Pyra? plugged or on battery? plugged to a PC, a charger or a usb extra battery ? can this even be detected?).

Yet if the sensor is there, backlight defaults to manual, and someone wants to fiddle with it, who knows what can come out of it.

But anyway, adding a sensor is work, and nobody has asked for it.People either don't want it with a passion, or don't care.

I mentioned it because it seemed logical. I tend to forget to change backlight (maybe because the control is not too at hand)
and it would be nice if it automatically guessed it right. I'm so lazy it would save batery for me. But since it seems it usually gets it wrong,
it must not be worth it. Never mind. You're busy already.

 

[jeeks]

I use the auto brightness setting on my iPhone, and it's pretty good. Took Apple a long time to get it right though... Or maybe I just got used to it I don't miss that stuff on the Pandora though, since I don't have to quit the game I'm playing, go into some menu, fiddle with the brightness until I'm comfortable, leave the menu, continue the game, then my surroundings probably changed again, so I leave the game etc etc... but can just use the buttons on the keyboard. Same with the GCW Zero.

tl;dr: Easily accessible brightness buttons are the best

 

[Haraldur]

Isn't it crazy that the whole mobile industry offers dynamic/auto lighting in practically every device and not a single user likes it!

Surely such a thing can only be disliked or ignored/unnoticed?

 

[comradekingu]

The reason dynamic lighting is a thing is due to regulatory demand. You can slap a A+++ sticker on your TV if you make it perform very badly. Thus fooling the customer to think it uses a low amount of power. At best customers leave garbage like that on, and the grid saves some power.

Reducing the backlighting overall or in a big area, unless you have a matrix backlighting making it local dimming, is a bad idea.

What i would want dynamic lighting for is instead to use more power. Turn on the backlighting of the keyboard of the non-keyboard keys when its dark, things like that.

 

[Grench]

I could have only 4+off = 5 settings for a backlight and be pretty happy for nearly anything.
Off
01% (Whatever the minimum is to have the backlight turned on. Night use.)
30% (What I generally have my phone at for normal indoor light tasks)
60% (What I generally have my phone at for daytime GPS use)
100%/full (Wow it's bright out here today)

Having a continuous bar to adjust the brightness on is neat and all, but I think I could operate happily with much fewer settings.

Quick - someone write brightness control software for the Pyra that gives the option to adjust 'continuously' (>100 steps) or discretely (select number of steps and desired brightness at each).

Next, someone could write a tasker type program interface that can control the brightness based on location triggered by time, GPS, WiFi and/or Bluetooth.
Connected to in-car bluetooth and time is after sunrise and before sunset at GPS location = 60%
Connected to in-car bluetooth and time is after sunset and before sunrise at GPS location = 15%
Connected to at home wifi but not car = 30%
Not on a known WiFi, multiple strong GPS signals (implies outdoors), not on car bluetooth, weather report stated 'clear', between 10 AM and 2 PM local time = 100%

This can be as complex or easy as we all choose to make it. Good thing we have an easy to use button that can be configured to easily control the backlights. That's my prefered method - but it doesn't mean that has to be the limit of it.

 

[fahrstuhl]

I really appreciate the dynamic backlight my Android phone has. Public transport has different lighting conditions every five minutes…

 

[WizardStan]

Isn't it crazy that the whole mobile industry offers dynamic/auto lighting in practically every device and not a single user likes it!

I have no doubt that the vast majority like it and, once again, this tiny little niche of people that exist on this board are the exception

 

[slaeshjag]

An ambient light sensor is probably the first thing I'll mod in. I don't want to be blinded by the screen when I've just woken up, which for me could be at any point on a 24 hour clock.

 

[Zink]

But on the other hand, when playing games, it needs more power as it needs to fully work with 60fps.

Thanks for the explanation.

I wonder if anyone has tried to implement a learning dynamic backlight that is manually controlled but learns the user preferences
in different settings and eventually can be switched to auto and adapts to the user.

I had something similar in one of my Android devices (never used that since, perhaps it's in newer versions too): there was a curve of backlight response to the ambient light level, and I could quite easily set my preferred brightness for any sensor value. But I was still often finding that the brightness have been inadequate to what I would like at the moment, so I have given up. Perhaps the optimal brightness depends on screen content and activity. Now I use a program called Display Brightness, with which I can change brightness by a single tap on the status bar, even if I turn the phone on in direct sunlight and can't see anything on the screen.

 

[Jerommeke]

7. Investments

Just a pre-information:
My biggest investor (with 100K EUR) is bailing out at the end of the year, so in case your interested in investing into the Pyra, you can do that at the end of the year.

Just contact me for more information in case you're interested (EvilDragon@openpandora.org).

That's it for today, back to work

@EvilDragon Are you looking for a single large investor, or would people willing to invest just a couple of k€ also be welcome?

 

[EricB]

I don't mind either auto or manual brightness settings. Not a deal breaker either way.

On my android phone the auto brightness setting is very well implemented.
I use it mostly to see the screen when i go in the sun outside and not scorch my eyes when i look at it at nigh with all the lights off. Maximum brightness on that thing can light up the whole room.
The auto setting also have a preferred maximum brightness slider.
I don't think it save on battery but i can't really tell since I got a battery that last over a week under Normal use or 2-3 days if I play games a lot.

 

[sepulep]

with interest rates going to zero and possibly lower in germany..it should be easy to find investors..

 

[edgex004]

If the investment gets broken into smaller chunks, I believe I'd be able to help as well.

 

[kiney]

Isn't it crazy that the whole mobile industry offers dynamic/auto lighting in practically every device and not a single user likes it!

Actually that makes sense, at least from my point of view:
I use my phone often for short periods of time under very different light conditions. I have dynamic lighting turned on here.
But for devices like laptops dynamic lighting is the first i switch off, if they have it.

And it's another checkmark in the feature-matrix ;-)

 

[error]

I think it's mostly the implementation.
If it would auto-learn, it might be better. I.e. if a user adjusts the backlight, it should remember the setting and the light and improve the auto-backlight in the future.

It would be neat if we could map sensor inputs to backlight outputs with a simple GUI. I'm imagining a UI similar to the Photoshop "Curves" utility.

 

[Grench]

At least the Pyra screeen (and keyboard) brightness will be easily controlled. How it was envisioned during the keyboard discussions was pretty simple anyway.

To use the, "Brightness button" in the "Atic" area of the keyboard:
Push the brightness button = screen brightness increases.
Shift+brightness button = screen brightness decreases.
Fn+brightness button = keyboard backlight increases.
Fn+shift+brightness button = keyboard backlight decreases.

Don't panic - Fn and Shift should be easily chordable on the keyboard and/or the shoulder buttons.

I'm not sure who is going to write the control module for this in the OS/setup GUI, but a few whiz bang features could include:
"Continuous range" vs. "discrete values" options.
"Looping" when you hit the end of the range - max brightness for example, then release and re-press it could jump to 0 then work up again.
Pre-defined user jump-to-brightness settings for both display and keyboard backlight presets for Alt &/or Ctrl + brightness.

Frankly status LEDs and LED backlight controls for the keyboard and even the display for that matter shouldn't be that hard to address. Not like the dev team is going to hide how to systematically control them anyway.

If someone wanted to get funky they could write something to look like a pulse audio output device and have a dance club mode driven off of the sounds being generated - complete with it's own "volume" slider that would translate into brightness (and color on the status and lid LEDs).

Open devices are good for sillyness.

 

[TeDaDeS]

Good update. I guess we don't mind the rotator chip gone, but it's nice to have a working board either way.
Looking forward to seeing and feeling the Pyra, and also to every use of a Pyra the community comes up with.