iPod touch Auto-Brightness Sensor

[DJMORGAN]

I was wondering if anyone can see the little dark grey dot on the top part of the iPod Touch. It sits in line with the right most edge of the safari icon.

The only reason I am posting about it is that I never noticed it before and was finishing off my daily screen clean and thought it was a piece of dirt or worse that I had somehow damaged the inside of the iPod.

If anyone else can see this then i will be convinced that it is the auto-brightness sensor and I have not damaged my iPod from too much cleaning.

 

[Zwhaler]

Yes, it is a sensor. But it doesn't seem to do anything (even with the auto brightness option turned on). I try covering it when it is bright outside... it doesn't even notice.

 

[sundayx]

Yeah I'm trying to figure out the effectiveness of the sensor, it works, but not very sensitive nor effective.

 

[aswitcher]

Yeah, mine doesn't seem very sensitive - possibly not even working.

In a darkened room a bright light shone on it for 30 seconds and then removed didn't make the screen brighten. Lights all off does nothing either...

 

[nlivo]

Yes, it is a sensor. But it doesn't seem to do anything (even with the auto brightness option turned on). I try covering it when it is bright outside... it doesn't even notice.

I read somewhere that it only detects the light when you turn it on (or unlock it).....

 

[aswitcher]

I read somewhere that it only detects the light when you turn it on (or unlock it).....

That would make sense to conserve battery life...

 

[iShak]

That would make sense to conserve battery life...

.. hahahaha ... priceless .. I hope you were being sarcastic ..

the sensor is there to save the battery by turning down the screen brightness when in dark areas, wouldn't iPod save more power when the sensor is actually on and adjusting the brightness real time than having it off to save whatever pico watts it might be using?

on-topic: yeah .. mine seems to be very very lazy as well

 

[SirCrumpet]

no, he actually has a point - the constant sampling and adjusting of the brightness would effectively nullify any advantage to battery life by reducing the brightness.

 

[aswitcher]

no, he actually has a point - the constant sampling and adjusting of the brightness would effectively nullify any advantage to battery life by reducing the brightness.

So it samples when your using it but when you leave it playing it doesn't bother since it assumes your not moving about...

 

[colto]

So it samples when your using it but when you leave it playing it doesn't bother since it assumes your not moving about...

No. When you leave it playing the screen turns off lol. But whenever you turn it on after that it resamples the light intensity and feeds the value to the processor and the amount of power to the LCD is computed.

 

[savar]

no, he actually has a point - the constant sampling and adjusting of the brightness would effectively nullify any advantage to battery life by reducing the brightness.

Umm..it just has to sample an ADC once or twice every second. The power consumption must be minute. Especially since the ADC is probably built into their microcontroller.

I can't get it to respond ot the sensor at all.

I thought the whole point (this is how iphone is described anyway) is that if the ipod is in your pocket it should automatically set the brightness very low...

 

[Laurent]

I think the sensor is trigered only once when you perform certain action (playing a movie, switching from Cover Flow to normal view, etc.) I noticed that when I changed the international settings of my iPod touch (from English to French, back and forth), it adjust the brightness of the screen to be darker. It seems that when the iPod is waking up, it starts with a darker screen and slowly turn it brighter after a minute or two...

 

[iShak]

no, he actually has a point - the constant sampling and adjusting of the brightness would effectively nullify any advantage to battery life by reducing the brightness.

I *think* its just a photo diode so it really wouldn't consume any power, its the micro controller that will consume power when computing input from the sensor, and that would almost be negligible.

 

[jepaz]

the sensor is there to save the battery by turning down the screen brightness when in dark areas, wouldn't iPod save more power when the sensor is actually on and adjusting the brightness real time than having it off to save whatever pico watts it might be using?

I think it's turning itself up when in dark areas. That's how my touch is behaving. And so I'm re-adjusting the brightness because it's so bright!

 

[madmaxmedia]

I think it's turning itself up when in dark areas. That's how my touch is behaving. And so I'm re-adjusting the brightness because it's so bright!

Mine seems unpredictable too. But it really should be dimming when you're in dark areas, and turning up the brightness in well-lit areas.