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No 'Wrist detection' while laying down?

J

J.C

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 12, 2008
465
61
When I'm laying down and turn my wrist to view the watch, nothing happens; the screen doesn't wake. Even with a very very deliberate movement of my arm it won't activate. In fact the only way to activate the screen while laying down is tapping it.

But when sitting or standing it works perfectly. Strangely enough it works perfectly even when my arm seems to be in the exact same position as it is when I'm laying. It was doing this to some degree since I got it, but now it never activates while laying.

What the hell is going on!? I'm tried restoring the watch, resetting it etc. No change.
 
J.C said:
When I'm laying down and turn my wrist to view the watch, nothing happens; the screen doesn't wake. Even with a very very deliberate movement of my arm it won't activate. In fact the only way to activate the screen while laying down is tapping it.

But when sitting or standing it works perfectly. Strangely enough it works perfectly even when my arm seems to be in the exact same position as it is when I'm laying. It was doing this to some degree since I got it, but now it never activates while laying.

What the hell is going on!? I'm tried restoring the watch, resetting it etc. No change.
Click to expand...


The watch is only supposed to detect your wrist turning when you are in a normal-upright position. Otherwise it would probably be turning on unintentionally in many other positions.
 
J.C said:
When I'm laying down and turn my wrist to view the watch, nothing happens; the screen doesn't wake. Even with a very very deliberate movement of my arm it won't activate. In fact the only way to activate the screen while laying down is tapping it.

But when sitting or standing it works perfectly. Strangely enough it works perfectly even when my arm seems to be in the exact same position as it is when I'm laying. It was doing this to some degree since I got it, but now it never activates while laying.

What the hell is going on!? I'm tried restoring the watch, resetting it etc. No change.
Click to expand...

I don't know nothing as I haven't got mine yet.
I would have thought this would be a feature as to not wear the battery out in the horizontal position/sleeping. if you raise your arm up while laying down , you are only putting it in the same positions that resembles standing , thus it should not wake....I'm guessing though :)
I'm curios to see what others say.
 
Last edited:
Pretty sure it is intentional.

They dont want it lighting up while you are sleeping, because it will kill the battery and wake you up
 
Thanks for the replies. This sucks. My back is out and I'm working from bed and I can't use my watch.

Anyone know how it actually works? I can get my arm in the exact same position sitting/laying but it still knows which is which.
 
It's using a gyro to determine its orientation relative to the ground, not your body position. It doesn't have face detection or other sensors to know you're viewing it, so when you're in bed, it will be at a different orientation. Just press a button :)
 
My watch lights up when I turn my wrist while I am sitting, or laying in bed with my body in a relatively upright positon. It however doesn't work if I am completely laying down and try to flick my wrist.
 
Scott-n-Houston said:
It's using a gyro to determine its orientation relative to the ground, not your body position. It doesn't have face detection or other sensors to know you're viewing it, so when you're in bed, it will be at a different orientation. Just press a button :)
Click to expand...

So what's the difference between sitting at a desk with your hand flat on the desk and raising it up to activate it vs lying flat on a bed with your hand flat on the bed and then raising it up to activate it?
 
This strikes me as a feature, not a bug. My beloved Casio Pathfinder has a lift-to-illuminate feature that turns on its backlight when you bring your wrist up to look at it at night. Unfortunately the damn thing spontaneously illuminates all night long, as the feature has no intelligence built into it to prevent that from happening. So, since I wear the watch at night, I've had that feature turned off.
 
J.C said:
Thanks for the replies. This sucks. My back is out and I'm working from bed and I can't use my watch.

Anyone know how it actually works? I can get my arm in the exact same position sitting/laying but it still knows which is which.
Click to expand...

It works, it's just a bit more finicky. For example, I'm lying on my couch right now, and if I want to take a look at the watch, I'll make a more exaggerated movement, and it typically works. If it doesn't, I'll simply tap the screen to activate the display. I'd say my success rate doing this is 90%+, but it does take a while to get used to.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll find a method that works.
 
Couldn't you make an exaggerated vertical movement before twisting your wrist and turning the face towards you? I see you wrote you make a "deliberate movement", but perhaps lifting it towards the ceiling first might do the trick.

On a separate matter, here's to hoping your back makes a speedy recovery.
 
As others have guessed, the algorithm is almost certainly designed to turn on only with certain movements and certain orientation relative to gravitational pull, or otherwise there would be a crazy number of false positives.

If you just tap the face with your finger (or nose, for that matter), it'll turn on.
 
littlezumbo said:
Couldn't you make an exaggerated vertical movement before twisting your wrist and turning the face towards you? I see you wrote you make a "deliberate movement", but perhaps lifting it towards the ceiling first might do the trick.

On a separate matter, here's to hoping your back makes a speedy recovery.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I probably should have said exaggerated as I've definitely tried that. Even when I nearly hit myself in the head swinging my arm up to look it does nothing.

It does sound like you guys are correct about it working this way by design.

----------
Scott-n-Houston said:
The final angle relative to the ground is different.
Click to expand...

I'm not understanding this fully as my arm position relative to the ground seems exactly the same when I'm laying with my arm beside me on the bed verses sitting with it on the desk. The only thing that changes is my elbow straightens as my body reclines. I'm sure you're right but perhaps there's a bit more intelligence to the detection.
 
My friend who owns an android wear device hands up seems to work just fine but maybe Im wrong it looked like it worked just fine for him.
 
Yeah, I've also noticed it does not work while upside down. Haha! Doing yoga and such! :)
 
I dont find it that bad in those cases, to just tap on the screen. A lot of people don't realize that you can tap on the screen even when it's off.
 
J.C said:
Thanks for the replies. This sucks. My back is out and I'm working from bed and I can't use my watch.
Click to expand...

Noticed this too. Have to touch the screen to wake it up, and then sometimes it shuts off too quickly. This is indeed somewhat bothersome. Reminds me of the initial iPhone when they had not included a rotation lock and the screen would flip around while you were laying down. Needs a fix, but it's going to be complex for Apple to figure this one out.
 
This was discussed here do death way before the launch. Without searching for old threads, I'll just say, "I told you so!" The fix is not possible without annoying user in one way or another - either it won't activate when you want it or it will activate left and right when you don't want it.

The only fix is Screen Always On.
 
Surely the simplest fix is a switch to select if you want it to activate while laying down or not. For people who never sleep with the watch they can have it activate just like it does sitting, standing. No one will be annoyed.
 
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