I noticed the other night as I was using my pixel 2 and viewing a security camera monitor when it's infra-red/night vision was active that the IR beacon on the front of my phone pulses regularly even when I am not using the front camera of my phone, and don't have a camera app running at the time. Does anyone know why the phone is using the IR light and sensor when I'm not using the phones front camera?
I don't think the pixel 2 has an ir on it.
leveleyed said:
I noticed the other night as I was using my pixel 2 and viewing a security camera monitor when it's infra-red/night vision was active that the IR beacon on the front of my phone pulses regularly even when I am not using the front camera of my phone, and don't have a camera app running at the time. Does anyone know why the phone is using the IR light and sensor when I'm not using the phones front camera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about the notification LED that sits in the top left hand corner or the camera LED flash? Your confusing me with this infrared/IR business. The pixel 2 doesnt have infrared.
enzyne said:
Are you talking about the notification LED that sits in the top left hand corner or the camera LED flash? Your confusing me with this infrared/IR business. The pixel 2 doesnt have infrared.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I am certain it is not the notification LED. That is visible in normal lighting conditions. What I am referring to is only visible in night vision, which uses an infrared light and sensor. So this is clearly a blinking infrared light on the top of the front/face of the phone. I believe it is normally used to detect the distance of subject matter to help adjust the front camera focus depth.
Also, I don't know how the "n" in infrared got deleted after I finished typing in the rest of the title for this post, but I assure you that when I typed the word it showed up as "infrared" not "I frared". And now I can't seem to figure out how to edit the title of the post, so I guess it's stuck like this.
I'm starting to wonder if I've stumbled upon something that may be evidence that the phone is always using the front-facing camera - even when the user isn't using the camera or any app that uses the camera. I had my fiancée also come into the room so I could see if the same happened with her iPhone 6. On hers, no light on the front was active until she unlocked the phone. But as soon as she did, an infrared light on the face of it stayed illuminated *constantly*, whereas the one on my pixel 2 just flashes periodically.
My inner conspiracy theorist is starting to wonder WTF is going on here, and why these sensor arrays are active even when the front camera isn't in use.
I'm hoping a well-informed Android or Pixel 2 developer will see this and respond to address these concerns.
leveleyed said:
No, I am certain it is not the notification LED. That is visible in normal lighting conditions. What I am referring to is only visible in night vision, which uses an infrared light and sensor. So this is clearly a blinking infrared light on the top of the front/face of the phone. I believe it is normally used to detect the distance of subject matter to help adjust the front camera focus depth.
Also, I don't know how the "n" in infrared got deleted after I finished typing in the rest of the title for this post, but I assure you that when I typed the word it showed up as "infrared" not "I frared". And now I can't seem to figure out how to edit the title of the post, so I guess it's stuck like this.
I'm starting to wonder if I've stumbled upon something that may be evidence that the phone is always using the front-facing camera - even when the user isn't using the camera or any app that uses the camera. I had my fiancée also come into the room so I could see if the same happened with her iPhone 6. On hers, no light on the front was active until she unlocked the phone. But as soon as she did, an infrared light on the face of it stayed illuminated *constantly*, whereas the one on my pixel 2 just flashes periodically.
My inner conspiracy theorist is starting to wonder WTF is going on here, and why these sensor arrays are active even when the front camera isn't in use.
I'm hoping a well-informed Android or Pixel 2 developer will see this and respond to address these concerns.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting. I will try with my phone and nest camera and see if it acts the same on mine.
I just tested it again, holding the phone at varying angles from the security camera, activating and deactivating its night vision/IR mode to see the difference. I recorded a video of it and will post a link tomorrow. When infrared is active, there is a clearly visible blinking light located in the center of the top of the phone just above the speaker bar (the one to the right of the front camera).
I'm really curious to get to the bottom of this so that I can dismiss the paranoia that big brother is constantly watching me through my phone's camera.
leveleyed said:
I just tested it again, holding the phone at varying angles from the security camera, activating and deactivating its night vision/IR mode to see the difference. I recorded a video of it and will post a link tomorrow. When infrared is active, there is a clearly visible blinking light located in the center of the top of the phone just above the speaker bar (the one to the right of the front camera).
I'm really curious to get to the bottom of this so that I can dismiss the paranoia that big brother is constantly watching me through my phone's camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
?It's the proximity sensor.
ajrty33 said:
?It's the proximity sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly!!
But why is the proximity sensory active all the time? Is it so the Ambient display doesn't turn on when face down?
oSandmaNo said:
Exactly!!
But why is the proximity sensory active all the time? Is it so the Ambient display doesn't turn on when face down?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its constantly trying to see if your phone is up to your ear or not.
I'm also wondering why the phone would need to have the proximity sensor active when I'm not using Ambient mode, and not currently engaged in a call. There's no need for it to be using the proximity sensor when I'm just browsing my home screen or using some other app. My phone isn't configured to turn off the screen if I set it face down for awhile or anything like that. So there shouldn't be anything using the proximity sensor.
This is common in modern phones, it's checking if you're holding it, if it if is by your face, in your pocket it allows gestures like wave to wake
Get used to it, it's not going away.
mrkhigh said:
This is common in modern phones, it's checking if you're holding it, if it if is by your face, in your pocket it allows gestures like wave to wake
Get used to it, it's not going away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the pixel doesn't have any of those features.
if u want to turn the sensor, disable all option in ambient display.
koax88 said:
if u want to turn the sensor, disable all option in ambient display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I tested that a few months ago (this isn't the first time this has been spotted). You can turn the ambient display off completely and the sensor is still active.
Unless of course they've realised in the meanwhile that this is pointless and fixed it in a software update - I've not retested it recently.
Large Hadron said:
Nope. I tested that a few months ago (this isn't the first time this has been spotted). You can turn the ambient display off completely and the sensor is still active.
Unless of course they've realised in the meanwhile that this is pointless and fixed it in a software update - I've not retested it recently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Just tested my phone, the sensor did not blink at all if u turn off all setting in the ambient Display section. Even double tap to wake will make the sensor blink. I noticed this since 8.0 tho.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
oSandmaNo said:
But the pixel doesn't have any of those features.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It certainly does. I use it to keep the screen off when my phone, in an Otterbox Defender, is in the holster, or when I lay it down face down. Both the front and rear cameras can see into the infrared. Just aim a TV remote at them when any camera app is running and press a button and you'll see the remote's IR LED going. (It has no IR output, though.)
Related
i'm confused. for some reason I had assumed that this phone (my Rogers Captivate) had a front facing camera, even though it wasn't enabled at the moment. now I'm reading and it seems that it doesn't. i was also surprised to hear that it doesn't have a notification LED. i mean, WTF?
anyway, what particularly confuses me is that there are three little circles clearly visible behind the glass... just above the Samsung logo and to the left - one of them looks like the lens for a small camera, and the other two look like LEDs.
what are these, if not a camera? are all three just for the proximity sensor?
Ambient light sensor and proximity sensor in no particular order.
thanks!!
in conclusion:
it is stupid that this phone does not have an LED notification.
front facing camera, I really couldn't care less about.
apockalupsis said:
thanks!!
in conclusion:
it is stupid that this phone does not have an LED notification.
front facing camera, I really couldn't care less about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from the blackberry world, and really missed the LED indicator at first, but now I actually prefer no LED. It does get annoying to have a blinking light on your phone all the time, so one starts to ignore it anyway thus it becomes useless.
You can use a 3rd party tool like BLN however, if you just need a little light.
apockalupsis said:
thanks!!
in conclusion:
it is stupid that this phone does not have an LED notification.
front facing camera, I really couldn't care less about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BLN will turn the Seach, Back, Home, and Menu key on (and keep them on... or even blink) when you get a notification. So in essence we have one.
Well i am very confused whether our phone has a light sensor or not. In the official user manual of I5801 (English-India), at page number 17, its clearly stated that the left one of the two sensors on top left side of our phone is proximity sensor and the right one is light sensor. If there is one, then why is there not any option for automatic brightness? and what its use is? And if its not there, then why is it given in the User's manual ?
Does anyone have any information on this at all? Was/is there any rom that supported automatic brighness via the light sensor?
So why isn't it included in Samsung' Stock Rom ?
Do you think really that no-one ever try to use it .
nishant_713 said:
Well i am very confused whether our phone has a light sensor or not. In the official user manual of I5801 (English-India), at page number 17, its clearly stated that the left one of the two sensors on top left side of our phone is proximity sensor and the right one is light sensor. If there is one, then why is there not any option for automatic brightness? and what its use is? And if its not there, then why is it given in the User's manual ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no light sensor on Galaxy I5800/5801. The proximity sensor is actually a pair of sensors, one sends an electromagnetic/Infrared radiation while the other one is to receive it back for the sensor to get activated.
nsm1234 said:
There is no light sensor on Galaxy I5800/5801. The proximity sensor is actually a pair of sensors, one sends an electromagnetic/Infrared radiation while the other one is to receive it back for the sensor to get activated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, this is kinda shocking news!
Hi there,
I have the S2 on rogers the 727 series. I have a few issues.
1. LED notifications never worked
2. Camera on my phone is always darker (i compared it with the same from on AT&T and its camera was actually better
3. Whenever i get a txt or missed call the phone never vibrates and i've tried different sms apps and all of them dont work even though the setting is on.
I know there are apps to get LED notifications but i dont like that...i would like to see my LEDs that the phone has working. Anyone have similar issues?
gohan411 said:
Hi there,
I have the S2 on rogers the 727 series. I have a few issues.
1. LED notifications never worked
2. Camera on my phone is always darker (i compared it with the same from on AT&T and its camera was actually better
3. Whenever i get a txt or missed call the phone never vibrates and i've tried different sms apps and all of them dont work even though the setting is on.
I know there are apps to get LED notifications but i dont like that...i would like to see my LEDs that the phone has working. Anyone have similar issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone had leds? News to me
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
Nope no led's lol the programbfpr notifications is called no led for a reason
what are those three circles right beside the speaker on the top of the phone to the left. In between the front camera and the speaker. they look like LEDs to me.
Proximity sensor
gohan411 said:
what are those three circles right beside the speaker on the top of the phone to the left. In between the front camera and the speaker. they look like LEDs to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
silver03wrx said:
Proximity sensor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
proximity and light sensors.....nothing LED there. the only GS2 phone with LEDs is the sprint version....
ahh i see....well what about everyone's camera. Im pretty disappointed with mine when its dark or just not day light the pictures turn out pretty dark. When i use the flash peoples faces turn white.
Go into settings in your camera and turn up the exposure. Indoor shots seem to darken for some reason with the stock settings. See if that fixes the issue.
One of the most annoying things of the Gear 1 is the motion to wake up the watch. Is it improved? I watched a bunch of hands on but they all tell the same story. No word about the fact that the display can't be lit all the time and that you have to do some abracadabra to wake the device. Most curious about any improvements in this department.
appelflap said:
One of the most annoying things of the Gear 1 is the motion to wake up the watch. Is it improved? I watched a bunch of hands on but they all tell the same story. No word about the fact that the display can't be lit all the time and that you have to do some abracadabra to wake the device. Most curious about any improvements in this department.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well you can't have screen all the time due to technology used. AMOLED. if it would be LCD then you could have screen on all the time, but without background light (like in sony smartwatch 2). i already got used to blank screen, and i just turn the screen on/off with a single button.
hurdlejade said:
well you can't have screen all the time due to technology used. AMOLED. if it would be LCD then you could have screen on all the time, but without background light (like in sony smartwatch 2). i already got used to blank screen, and i just turn the screen on/off with a single button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know. I'm wondering if they made the watch more sensitive for motions, introduced a new or better wake up motion etc . Definitely want to know more about that.
if samsung did not mention it, then probably it's the same.
hurdlejade said:
if samsung did not mention it, then probably it's the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be a detail for people coming from the Gear1.
If the battery life is better they might have add a more sensitive option.
Btw personally I dont mind to charge the watch every night. Just some routine. I like it even better than checking the battery to see if it needs to be charged again. So if they made the wake up motion more sensitive and could still pump one day out of the battery, it would definitely be a reason for me to upgrade. Otherwise I see no compelling reasons.
I understand what OP is saying. I'm interested to know that answer as well. I actually had to turn motion off because the watch constantly stayed on while driving all day. It would kill my battery. With it off and me pressing the on button as needed, I get at least 3 days of battery life. A better motion sensor could possibly solve this issue.
alprazolam said:
I understand what OP is saying. I'm interested to know that answer as well. I actually had to turn motion off because the watch constantly stayed on while driving all day. It would kill my battery. With it off and me pressing the on button as needed, I get at least 3 days of battery life. A better motion sensor could possibly solve this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed having non-TW launcher caused issues with the motion sensor. Using stock had better motion sensor.
Sepharite said:
I noticed having non-TW launcher caused issues with the motion sensor. Using stock had better motion sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what kind of issues did you have? i had none with nova.
I read a hand on today where the reviewer said it does turn on with the flick up of the wrist but that it doesn't turn on right away, like a couple of seconds delay. That isn't good. I want it to be quick like the pebble when you shake the wrist slightly the light comes on. Hopefully they tweak that before it is released....
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
hurdlejade said:
what kind of issues did you have? i had none with nova.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had any problems with it either.
everlast716 said:
I read a hand on today where the reviewer said it does turn on with the flick up of the wrist but that it doesn't turn on right away, like a couple of seconds delay. That isn't good. I want it to be quick like the pebble when you shake the wrist slightly the light comes on. Hopefully they tweak that before it is released....
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I want. I move my arm to that wrist up position to much so the watch is almost always on. I wish it had the option to shake the wrist instead so I have better control.
Personally the only good thing about this watch is the motion thing. It works like a good 90-95% of the time. Wake up is excellent on it. However, it goes crazy when your driving.
Hi guys,
Noticed a very interesting thing today: suddenly a white light started to pulse next to the front cam every time I was tilting the phone. It was quick 3-4 pulses with strict intervals as if a sensor was working. It didn't pulse when phone was in a fixed position, only when tilting, in all apps.
A reboot fixed this, but I wonder if there is any sensor there that activated because of something? Never experienced this before!
Any thoughts what it can be? Thx.
Sounds like proximity sensor to me.
znel52 said:
Sounds like proximity sensor to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I also thought so but the phone didn't turn off the screen when I was placing my finger on that sensor. The proximity sensor should turn the screen off as far as I am aware. Maybe a glitch after doing a video call via Viber?
VirtualWaver said:
Thanks. I also thought so but the phone didn't turn off the screen when I was placing my finger on that sensor. The proximity sensor should turn the screen off as far as I am aware. Maybe a glitch after doing a video call via Viber?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A glitch with viber thats causing excessive proximity sensor usage. It will eventually burn the pixels around that area like the other post posted today.
Limeybastard said:
A glitch with viber thats causing excessive proximity sensor usage. It will eventually burn the pixels around that area like the other post posted today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this! I did test my screen and all looks good but this is worrying. However, this only happened once although I use Viber video calls every day.
VirtualWaver said:
Thanks for this! I did test my screen and all looks good but this is worrying. However, this only happened once although I use Viber video calls every day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im going to try this out myself next week and see what's going on. Mine ain't coming until Monday.
Limeybastard said:
A glitch with viber thats causing excessive proximity sensor usage. It will eventually burn the pixels around that area like the other post posted today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hoe bright is it?
Normally it could blink during SOT and with that duty cycle it will outlast many of the other screen pixels.
Or is there something I'm missing???
Are it's pixels IR?
blackhawk said:
Hoe bright is it?
Normally it could blink during SOT and with that duty cycle it will outlast many of the other screen pixels.
Or is there something I'm missing???
Are it's pixels IR?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who's a hoe?
Probably much ado about nothing. But I can't test it. , The only thing that came to mind was screen being full brightness and proximity sensor being on for hours causing this. But just a hunch .
Limeybastard said:
A glitch with viber thats causing excessive proximity sensor usage. It will eventually burn the pixels around that area like the other post posted today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Limeybastard said:
Who's a hoe?
Probably much ado about nothing. But I can't test it. , The only thing that came to mind was screen being full brightness and proximity sensor being on for hours causing this. But just a hunch .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even at full brightness because it's flashing, it's duty cycle is less than the surrounding pixels plus it will "flash" by darkening its pixels depending on screen color.
If it has specialized IR emitters I could see that happening maybe; if there's a design or manufacturing flaw.
Because it's flashing visible light it would be hard to use a cam to detect IR... which is how I normally check IR emitters.
While it was easily seen on the Note 10 i can't see it on the Note 20
Nastrahl said:
While it was easily seen on the Note 10 i can't see it on the Note 20
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Maybe it uses IR diodes?
If it doesn't display when it's active maybe that's why some think it's "burnt out"?
Lol, until someone mentioned the flashing circle I never noticed it.
blackhawk said:
Interesting. Maybe it uses IR diodes?
If it doesn't display when it's active maybe that's why some think it's "burnt out"?
Lol, until someone mentioned the flashing circle I never noticed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know.
I've read that they replaced all the sensors with the front camera, and that′s one of the battery killer since a few were completely passive like the ambiant light one, that's now active.
When a passive sensor needs no electricity to operate, an active needs to, and the camera can't work passively so it drains battery.
They advised to turn off all the features that use the front camera as a sensor like the auto brightness, smart stay (and also what can use the accelerometer like smart alert and raise to turn on the screen), etc. to avoid the process Android System to take to much battery.
Nastrahl said:
While it was easily seen on the Note 10 i can't see it on the Note 20
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nastrahl said:
I don't know.
I've read that they replaced all the sensors with the front camera, and that′s one of the battery killer since a few were completely passive like the ambiant light one, that's now active.
When a passive sensor needs no electricity to operate, an active needs to, and the camera can't work passively so it drains battery.
They advised to turn off all the features that use the front camera as a sensor like the auto brightness, smart stay (and also what can use the accelerometer like smart alert and raise to turn on the screen), etc. to avoid the process Android System to take to much battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even passive sensors use some current although it may be in the microamps.
Autobrightness is a trash apk anyway.
Seems highly unlikely that the whole cam be used for these functions if at all.
VirtualWaver said:
Thanks. I also thought so but the phone didn't turn off the screen when I was placing my finger on that sensor. The proximity sensor should turn the screen off as far as I am aware. Maybe a glitch after doing a video call via Viber?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if anyone told you this sorry haven't had time to read the thread but I would suggest avoiding viber calls on this phone. The proximity sensor is damaging the screen when on viber. It seems viber is accessing the sensor too aggressively.
Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
warriorvibhu said:
Not sure if anyone told you this sorry haven't had time to read the thread but I would suggest avoiding viber calls on this phone. The proximity sensor is damaging the screen when on viber. It seems viber is accessing the sensor too aggressively.
Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know this is most likely a digital circuit; a fixed voltage of an either high or low value... those values are fixed and don't change. Even firmware can't alter that let alone apks. Duty cycle rate/length maybe.
This urban rumor about the proximity sensor causing screen damage has been around since at least 2015, long before OLED screens.
A Google search yielded nothing except this:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S10/Proximity-sensor-issues-S10-S10/td-p/498492/page/9
blackhawk said:
Even passive sensors use some current although it may be in the microamps.
Autobrightness is a trash apk anyway.
Seems highly unlikely that the whole cam be used for these functions if at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trash apk ? Sorry i meant the built-in adaptive brightness.
---------- Post added at 01:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------
blackhawk said:
You know this is most likely a digital circuit; a fixed voltage of an either high or low value... those values are fixed and don't change. Even firmware can't alter that let alone apks. Duty cycle rate/length maybe.
This urban rumor about the proximity sensor causing screen damage has been around since at least 2015, long before OLED screens.
A Google search yielded nothing except this:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S10/Proximity-sensor-issues-S10-S10/td-p/498492/page/9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally never heard about it. Thanks for the insight
Nastrahl said:
Trash apk ? Sorry i meant the built-in adaptive brightness"
I personally never heard about it. Thanks for the insight
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My opinions.
There certainly are long standing Samsung issues that span more then one generation of phones. The proximity sensor trashing the screen doesn't appear to exist at all. If anything it conserves screen life.
Auto brightness was always twitchy even on my S4+.
Auto brightness was never truly adaptive... and still isn't. Lol, all it does is give me a headache and waste resources.
The other thing is I always try to avoid using my phones in direct sunlight. Very rarely do I ever go past 65% brightness.
Direct sunlight+high ambient temperature+high power consumption can really overheat a phone fast.
Even worse...
Auto brightness on+charging+sunlight+accidental screen turn on that's not noticed, can fry a phone in a few minutes. Real easy to do in the car... been there.
blackhawk said:
My opinions.
There certainly are long standing Samsung issues that span more then one generation of phones. The proximity sensor trashing the screen doesn't appear to exist at all. If anything it conserves screen life.
Auto brightness was always twitchy even on my S4+.
Auto brightness was never truly adaptive... and still isn't. Lol, all it does is give me a headache and waste resources.
The other thing is I always try to avoid using my phones in direct sunlight. Very rarely do I ever go past 65% brightness.
Direct sunlight+high ambient temperature+high power consumption can really overheat a phone fast.
Even worse...
Auto brightness on+charging+sunlight+accidental screen turn on that's not noticed, can fry a phone in a few minutes. Real easy to do in the car... been there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i never thought about that so it's a very valuable information.
Just in case if it can be useful :
A few years ago I found an app called Underburn which is a complete new approach about adaptive brightness.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.out386.underburn
Instead of adjusting the screen brightness from the ambient light, it set it according of the amount of white pixels displayed on screen to avoid binding you, and it doesn't care about sunlight.
The more white is displayed, the more it will dim the screen (by reducing the screen brightness, not by applying a filter ; even if there's also a setting for that if its too bright for you even at the minimum level) by the amount of your choosing.
It can play a role to save battery too somehow.
Nastrahl said:
Thanks, i never thought about that so it's a very valuable information.
Just in case if it can be useful :
A few years ago I found an app called Underburn which is a complete new approach about adaptive brightness.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.out386.underburn
Instead of adjusting the screen brightness from the ambient light, it set it according of the amount of white pixels displayed on screen to avoid binding you, and it doesn't care about sunlight.
The more white is displayed, the more it will dim the screen (by reducing the screen brightness, not by applying a filter ; even if there's also a setting for that if its too bright for you even at the minimum level) by the amount of your choosing.
It can play a role to save battery too somehow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
I'll take a look at it. I'm running on dark mode but since it's Pie it's not native to all apps like Gmail which burns my eyes out.
*I'm playing with it. It will run on Pie. It takes some time to set up but definitely has potential.
Haven't been able to fairly gauge it's configured battery usage.