Dimming Your Phone's Screen Under Your Thumb Could Prolong Battery Life

[Ethnod]

Well now this is clever… and from Microsoft, I’m confused … Ah no seriously, I’m impressed. Extremely good concept. I would have liked them to have surveyed more than just 12 people tbh but still very cool.

 

For those that don’t want to go and read the article the basics are that the research centres around the fact that in a lot of cases while using the phone we obscure parts of the phone with our hands and fingers and still manage to use them perfectly so the principle is that those areas are dimmed and as such will save on battery. According to the article as much as 12% can be saved and while that does not seem like a lot it can make the difference between having to charge in work and getting home or being able to make that last call to find out where you are going.

 

Pretty cool if it is implemented properly.

I still think that scientists need to get the finger out and improve battery tech

 

 

Source:

http://gizmodo.com/dimming-your-phones-screen-under-your-thumb-could-prolo-1641592604

[GeekySole9354]

Hmm, i'm not sure...

[Altecice]

"Dimming Your Phone's Screen Under Your Thumb Could Prolong Battery Life"... by about ten seconds

[dlf]

So put your finger (or thumb) in a different part of the phone?

[Stefano]

This will only work on OLEDs. SO thats most phones off the list. Why not just turn the bightness down in the first place, You could get that 12% any you probably wouldn't even notice the difference.

[LemonSpice]

Well now this is clever… and from Microsoft, I’m confused … Ah no seriously, I’m impressed. Extremely good concept. I would have liked them to have surveyed more than just 12 people tbh but still very cool.

 

For those that don’t want to go and read the article the basics are that the research centres around the fact that in a lot of cases while using the phone we obscure parts of the phone with our hands and fingers and still manage to use them perfectly so the principle is that those areas are dimmed and as such will save on battery. According to the article as much as 12% can be saved and while that does not seem like a lot it can make the difference between having to charge in work and getting home or being able to make that last call to find out where you are going.

 

Pretty cool if it is implemented properly.

I still think that scientists need to get the finger out and improve battery tech

 

 

Source:

http://gizmodo.com/dimming-your-phones-screen-under-your-thumb-could-prolo-1641592604

the only problem is that most phones have edgelit siplays and if no tthey definatly don't have indvidually backlit sections that would waste even more energy and battery life

[Bogica]

Sorry, it's not so significant, if it was a higher power saving, I would go for it. Microsoft has been doing a lot of interesting research lately and it's awesome, but this is one of those things that we won't see implemented.

[LemonSpice]

Well now this is clever… and from Microsoft, I’m confused … Ah no seriously, I’m impressed. Extremely good concept. I would have liked them to have surveyed more than just 12 people tbh but still very cool.

 

For those that don’t want to go and read the article the basics are that the research centres around the fact that in a lot of cases while using the phone we obscure parts of the phone with our hands and fingers and still manage to use them perfectly so the principle is that those areas are dimmed and as such will save on battery. According to the article as much as 12% can be saved and while that does not seem like a lot it can make the difference between having to charge in work and getting home or being able to make that last call to find out where you are going.

 

Pretty cool if it is implemented properly.

I still think that scientists need to get the finger out and improve battery tech

 

 

Source:

http://gizmodo.com/dimming-your-phones-screen-under-your-thumb-could-prolo-1641592604

nice f-stop title

[Thorium19]

So if a phone battery lasts 16 hours, at the uppermost saved batterylife (12%) then you could get nearly 2 hours extra batterylife. But the amount of extra time you get would be dependent on battery size and other factors as well. And of course AM/OLED screens would have to be used most likely.

It's a good idea, but how widely it will be widely implemented shall have to be seen.

[The_Evenger]

i could see an extra 10-15 minutes, but you also gata think something is using power processing where to dim, and will need a whole new sensor system to know whats under the thumb relive to your eye and that it doesn't accidentally dim parts of the screen for people walking next to you.

[Photonic]

 

I still think that scientists need to get the finger out and improve battery tech

 

 

Scientists should have higher priority on improving batteries for other stuff like electric cars rather than phones

[Scheer]

I love how half the posts are saying its not significant... 12% is A LOT, especially for one little trick. I bet most companies spend thousands of hours in research time to figure out how to save even 1% of battery life. 12% here, 4% there, etc results in much better battery life, its much more effective to cut a little bit of drain off several components than to majority reduce drain from just one.

 

Scientists should have higher priority on improving batteries for other stuff like electric cars rather than phones

 

The tech gained from one area always benefits another, better phone batteries mean better car batteries and vice versa. Historically the development of better phone batteries has had a larger impact on electric car batteries, rather than the other way around. Hell, in the beginning most people were throwing lead batteries in electric cars, even though lithium varieties had been around forever.

[Photonic]

I love how half the posts are saying its not significant... 12% is A LOT, especially for one little trick. I bet most companies spend thousands of hours in research time to figure out how to save even 1% of battery life. 12% here, 4% there, etc results in much better battery life, its much more effective to cut a little bit of drain off several components than to majority reduce drain from just one.

 

 

The tech gained from one area always benefits another, better phone batteries mean better car batteries and vice versa. Historically the development of better phone batteries has had a larger impact on electric car batteries, rather than the other way around. Hell, in the beginning most people were throwing lead batteries in electric cars, even though lithium varieties had been around forever.

Greedy companies like apple will keep there technology to them selves

[Techhog]

I don't use my phone one-handed

[The_Strict_Nein]

"Dimming Your Phone's Screen Under Your Thumb Could Prolong Battery Life"... by about ten seconds

 

The actual idea is permanently dimming the areas that are typically covered by your thumb, rather than just when your thumb touches the screen (the reaction time would be too slow to do that un-jarringly)

[Deletive]

Or you know you could fund more IGZO display development...

[Scheer]

Greedy companies like apple will keep there technology to them selves

 

While I'm not a fan of Apple, image how far behind smartphones would be right now if they didn't exist.

 

Whether they share the tech or not, it will be reverse engineered, copied, and modified.

 

Also, I doubt Apple has ever done battery research, they just throw in whatever is the most powerful.

[Craftable124]

But are they sure I wouldn't be able to notice this if I were maybe watching a video? I always keep my brightness down anyway, except when I'm outside and can't see my phone.

[Heisenbleurgh]

This would be extremely annoying unless developed perfectly which is being very optimistic. I think I'll just stick to carrying a battery pack every once in a while.

[totjup5]

Probably wouldn't help that much, many people keep their brightness fairly low anyway.

[techswede]

But.. I use a stylus 

[IdeaStormer]

More power could be saved if the phones stopped running tracker apps from the providers, and their BS apps, well not having the BS apps woulds save mainly storage but save CPU as in when you accidentally start those  BS apps.

[Chevaishr]

i could see an extra 10-15 minutes, but you also gata think something is using power processing where to dim, and will need a whole new sensor system to know whats under the thumb relive to your eye and that it doesn't accidentally dim parts of the screen for people walking next to you.

no new sensors needed ... because the phone already know where you pressing. also chips are quite efficient (i can confirm that with mediatek chips )   

[Guest Kloaked]

So this cool advancement might be made to help prolong battery life of phones and people are having sour attitudes about it?

So what if it's a small percentage, it's still something .