[RooneyX]

OK, so they nicked my camoflage

Kidding, I got another idea in keeping with the whole big cats, jungle and Safari thing. It's called Torchlight.

Basically it allows you to work in the dark with laptop screen brightness set to almost zero. It shines a sphere of light, like a torchlight, around the area you are working on only while leaving the rest of the screen dark (though not totally). So the light would appear around either mouse or text cursor. It should be configurable too. Adjust the brightness of torchlight, the raduis of the torchlight and the darkness of the unlit areas. It should also be activated with one key press or shortcut.

Before one asks what is the purpose for this feature I will explain. Some people use their laptops on fieldjobs in the dark. This feature not only saves battery power by illuminating just a section of the screen but also helps keep their work discreet. Others use their laptops on planes and other public areas and don't want people snooping over their shoulders and reading the contents of their whole screen.

It's basically the same as using a small light when reading a book or writing. To work properly it might need some hardware implementation because current LCDs aren't able to reduce the brightness of parts of the screen while highlighting other parts.

My next amazing feature will be called Monkey. It allows the user to swing information from user defined groups of applications called Trees. It's an organization tool that uses metadata and is similar to smart playlists. It will be the successor to the Finder's successor Hunter.

[:XI:]

What the hell are you on?

I want one extra feature to exposé, a zoom mouse cursor key. I keep losing my damn mouse cursor!

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by :XI::
What the hell are you on?

Beer and coffee. Coffee and beer.

[cszar2001]

Good idea. Would take some getting used to-but I think it`d would work really well.
To expand on the idea: why not make the window you`re working in brighter than the rest?-even under normal daylight conditions?
The PB17`s screen is huge-one gets easily distracted by other stuff on the screen.
A "selective high-lighting" feature like you describe would be easy on the eyes.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by cszar2001:
Good idea. Would take some getting used to-but I think it`d would work really well.
To expand on the idea: why not make the window you`re working in brighter than the rest?-even under normal daylight conditions?
The PB17`s screen is huge-one gets easily distracted by other stuff on the screen.
A "selective high-lighting" feature like you describe would be easy on the eyes.

Some people might take this to be some sort of Open GL/Quartz feature in software alone. I'm talking about it being intergrated with a new form of LCD so it actually saves power too. Imagine being able to turn the darkness down on parts of the screen not highlighted. Should save lots of battery power.

[Cadaver]

Won't save any battery power.
The LCD's backlight is on regardless if a dime size region of the screen is lit or the whole thing. The screen's backlight is either on or off. There is no zonal control of the backlight.

[Link]

Yeah, since the backlight consists of a set of large CCFL tubes this would be impossible for now

As for the 'window lighting', Does anyone here remember that in 10.2 and below the inactive windows had translucent titlebars? I miss that sooo much >_<

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by Cadaver:
Won't save any battery power.
The LCD's backlight is on regardless if a dime size region of the screen is lit or the whole thing. The screen's backlight is either on or off. There is no zonal control of the backlight.

I said it would require new technology, it's way off. But imagine being able to have the LCD highlight just one application. Imagine you're on a plane and only using Word and need to save battery power. It would be great to have just one application being lit by the backlight. Or Safari being lit in a cafe.

[Michel_80]

Interesting.

[Spliffdaddy]

Backlights are enlogated glass tubes - very much like fluorescent lights you're accustomed to seeing in commercial buildings and schools. Typically, there are fewer than 6 (the use of 2 U-shaped tubes is common) of these 'cold cathode' light tubes in flatpanel displays.

So, your idea really won't work with existing backlight technology - but it's a very very good idea, nonetheless. Backlights are one of the most power-hungry components you'll find in laptops.

Using your idea along with current technology:

Pre-determined areas of the flatpanel could be switched on&off by using multiple cold cathode tubes shaped like squares instead of the 'normal' arrangement of rows of long tubes extending from side-to-side or top-to-bottom. If you divide the backlight into 4 distinct screen areas (quadrants like top left & top right, bottom left & bottom right, for example) you could switch off any 'unused' portions of the screen to save battery power. Of course, the OS should be aware of what quandrants are lit and avoid showing important things in the blacked-out quandrants.

[Lancer409]

i doubt it'll ever be used then. because oLED's are supposed to be in laptops within a few years. oLED's = Organic Light Emitting Diodes .. fun stuff .. i like how it's flexible .. = no more damaged lcd's from flexing. plus, with oled's mass produced, if it's even possible for burned pixels (not sure if u can have pixels stuck or dead in oled's) it'd be cheap to replace. cheers

[mishap]

Originally posted by :XI::


I want one extra feature to exposé, a zoom mouse cursor key. I keep losing my damn mouse cursor!

Zoom to mouse cursor has been a feature since Jaguar

[Grrr]

Yeah, I see people having midnight laptop parties in the fields around here all the time.

[mitchell_pgh]

I don't think it's a horrible idea, but perhaps a 3rd party would be better. I highly doubt it's worth Apple's time unless other components are added to it.

[KraziKid]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Backlights are enlogated glass tubes - very much like fluorescent lights you're accustomed to seeing in commercial buildings and schools. Typically, there are fewer than 6 (the use of 2 U-shaped tubes is common) of these 'cold cathode' light tubes in flatpanel displays.

So, your idea really won't work with existing backlight technology - but it's a very very good idea, nonetheless. Backlights are one of the most power-hungry components you'll find in laptops.

Using your idea along with current technology:

Pre-determined areas of the flatpanel could be switched on&off by using multiple cold cathode tubes shaped like squares instead of the 'normal' arrangement of rows of long tubes extending from side-to-side or top-to-bottom. If you divide the backlight into 4 distinct screen areas (quadrants like top left & top right, bottom left & bottom right, for example) you could switch off any 'unused' portions of the screen to save battery power. Of course, the OS should be aware of what quandrants are lit and avoid showing important things in the blacked-out quandrants.

Like he said, new technology would be needed. OLED's provide the technology to do it, because each pixel emits its own light.

[skalie]

If you're not worried too much about the power-saving side of things, you could try and make something like this with Flash or someit, with a stay-on-top feature.

http://scraf.com/index00.swf

[cold aspiration]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
current LCDs aren't able to reduce the brightness of parts of the screen while highlighting other parts.

open any application and press F9

[ul1984]

RooneyX, you know you could turn the brightness down to zero, so that the backlight is turned off, then point a real flashlight at the screen. (this probably saves loads of battery power too!)

i just tried it in a dark room, and it works, i can read text on the screen.
If you dont have a PowerBook you probably cant test this, because on my iMac TFT for example, if i turn brightness down to the lowest possible value, it will still have the backlight turned on

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by ul1984:
RooneyX, you know you could turn the brightness down to zero, so that the backlight is turned off, then point a real flashlight at the screen. (this probably saves loads of battery power too!)

i just tried it in a dark room, and it works, i can read text on the screen.
If you dont have a PowerBook you probably cant test this, because on my iMac TFT for example, if i turn brightness down to the lowest possible value, it will still have the backlight turned on

Its not possible on a Powerbook. The lowest brightness setting turns the screen black.

[rjenkinson]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Its not possible on a Powerbook. The lowest brightness setting turns the screen black.

the backlight will go off, but if you look carefully you will still be able to see an image. try it.

-r.

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by KraziKid:
Like he said, new technology would be needed. OLED's provide the technology to do it, because each pixel emits its own light.

You get the prize. OLED is exactly what you need to implement this. The technology isn't quite there to make OLED laptop screens yet, but it's coming.

Originally posted by RooneyX:
The lowest brightness setting turns the screen black.

Not on my iBook, at least. The lowest setting turns the backlight off, but the LCD is still active. You would only be able to read it in bright lighe like sunlight, though, and only if the light is reflecting through the LCD at just the right angle.

[madmacgames]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Its not possible on a Powerbook. The lowest brightness setting turns the screen black.

just turns the backlight off... if you have sharp eyes you can still see the screen image.

*edit* oops. looks like rjenkinson already answered this one.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by madmacgames:
just turns the backlight off... if you have sharp eyes you can still see the screen image.

Thats what I meant. He said if I shine a torch against it I can still work - maybe...but my eyes would die tomorrow.

[KraziKid]

Originally posted by cold aspiration:
open any application and press F9

No, when you do that, the pixel just blocks any light from passing from the diffuser to the outside, but the backlight continues to shine at the same brightness level. Think of it this way: Take a lamp, and but a solid black piece of construction paper in front of it. It blocks the light, yes, but the light is still shining at the same intensity, using the same amount of power.

[RooneyX]

Another good reason for software to have control over each pixel light is this:

-Currently when we have alerts icons change or little exclamation marks and so on are displays. With control over the light in the screen we could have an icon that actually lights up even if the screen is dimmed. So only those pixels would flash and not the whole screen. It would catch the eye immediately.

-The traffic light widgets on the title bars could be actual lights with RGB values rather than colored bitmaps. We could get them to flash, I mean actually flash rather than use some animated images.

-Using the above method the screen could be dimmed to zero and an alarm or Email notification could be displayed on screen. Say you're running the laptop on battery somewhere and have turned down the brightness and volume to save power but still would like the system to notify you of an Email. A bright text could appear on screen without the brightness setting being affected. Or an instant message could appear on screen too.

-Same for a clock. You could leave the laptop to the side, brightness turned down all the way but the time could still be displayed brightly.

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
I said it would require new technology, it's way off. But imagine being able to have the LCD highlight just one application. Imagine you're on a plane and only using Word and need to save battery power. It would be great to have just one application being lit by the backlight. Or Safari being lit in a cafe.

While we're at it, I'd like to imagine a holodeck. That only requires new technology, after all...

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by diamondsw:
While we're at it, I'd like to imagine a holodeck. That only requires new technology, after all...

I'm working on it right
NOW WON
WON NOW
WNO ONW
NWO OWN
OWN NWO
ONW WNO

[bmedina]

I don't know about you guys, but I don't constrain my view to where the mouse or cursor is positioned. How would the screen keep track of what you're looking at so that it can light the appropriate area?

The traffic light widgets on the title bars could be actual lights with RGB values rather than colored bitmaps. We could get them to flash, I mean actually flash rather than use some animated images.

How would that be appreciably different than what we could do today? Colored bitmaps end up as RGB values when they are displayed. Lights that actually flash will look the same as an animated image that flashes. You're talking about two things as if they are different, but they're exactly the same in the end.

If OLED screens ever become mainstream, I'm sure we'll see some cool applications.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by bmedina:


How would that be appreciably different than what we could do today? Colored bitmaps end up as RGB values when they are displayed. Lights that actually flash will look the same as an animated image that flashes.

No. Because bitmaps will take on the brightness of the rest of the screen. But actual lit up areas can be brighter than the rest of the screen. So for things like alerts this could be very useful or even for just seeing things like widgets or clickable areas when the screen is dimmed. It doesn't have to be super bright, just a notch higher than the rest of the screen. What's important is that by having variable brightness you save battery power or have certain special effects which can be useful and productive.

I think some GUIs in movies have this if I remember. In Minority Report they have a completely transparent plastic LCD screen on which the GUI is made up of lighted and shaded areas. This can be a reality if we have software control over every pixel's color, brightness and even transparency (so that we could see through the screen like a piece of glass, etc).

With that last bit, transparency, we might even be able to have two way screens, we wouldn't have to have a lid on the back of our LCDs. We could present an image both ways, front and back or even two different images.

With advanced in LCD there are so many innnovations in the GUI around the corner. And we don't have to go down the 3D GUI route for a long time.

[Thilo Ettelt]

Hi, I made a quick and dirty implementation:

Torchlight Alpha

Use on your own risk!

Missing feature: Resizing the "light"
Known bug: Doesn't refresh when opening menus


- Thilo

EDIT: Updated version, first version didn't launch

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by Thilo Ettelt:
Hi, I made a quick and dirty implementation:

Torchlight Alpha

Use on your own risk!

Missing feature: Resizing the "light"
Known bug: Doesn't refresh when opening menus


- Thilo

EDIT: Updated version, first version didn't launch

Thats very cute. wish it really did dim the rest of screen. Notice VLC plays movies brightly while the rest of the screen is dark. Now all we need is the proper hardware implemenation. Then you could have lit applicatiions, using them on the road and saving battery power.

[:XI:]

Originally posted by mishap:
Zoom to mouse cursor has been a feature since Jaguar

That's not what i mean. I don't have a problem reading anything on my display, I just lose the mouse cursor. What I'd like is to hold the F8 key or something and have the mouse cursor pulse, just so i can see it, without having the scramble the mouse around and look at both my displays just to find it.