app to wake?

[abidein]

hi all! new here, i am currently looking for an app that enables me to touch screen to wake the phone instead of pressing home button. using Samsung galaxy S currently. thanks in advance! tried to find but all i found is they only unlock the device but i still got to click home button.

 

[Motorhomer]

hi all! new here, i am currently looking for an app that enables me to touch screen to wake the phone instead of pressing home button. using Samsung galaxy S currently. thanks in advance! tried to find but all i found is they only unlock the device but i still got to click home button.

With the battery life as it is on these devices I would think the last thing that anyone wants is an app that will turn on the screen with the slightest accidental pressure.

Possibly you keep it in a hard case where this isn't possible but, if not, I'd be tempted to stick with what you have. Is it so hard or time-consuming to press a button?

 

[chanchan05]

I dont think its possible on a capacitive screen to wake it up using a touch of the screen, unlike how resistive screens (like on an N97 or 5800) can do it. Basically its a difference of technologies.

1. Capacitive screens respond to your touches due to a distortion on the electromagnetic field of the screen, because the skin is also electrically conductive. This is also why normal styluses or fingernails dont work on capacitive screens (technically a sausage could work as a stylus though )

2. When a capacitive screen is off, usually the phone turns off the current to the conductive surface as well to save battery, thus there is no electrical current on the screen when it is asleep. There will be no electrical field to distort by your finger, thus the screen cant be woken up by pressing it.

3. Resisitive screens are able to do this because of the difference in technology. There is no electrical field in resisitive screens, only two layers of electrical conductors. When you press down on a part of the screen, it caused these two layers to meet, and the point where those two layers meet is registered as your touch. Hence it basically acts just like a normal keypad. The lockscreen switch is simply the on and off switch of these two conductor layers.


Basically, what you are asking from your phone is to basically not turn the screen off at all, which I would advice against.

 

[Stuntman]

The Nokia N9 has no buttons and is awaken by tapping the touch screen. I would imagine that if you can do it on the N9, you can do it on any phone with a capacitive touch screen.

 

[chanchan05]

It would probably depend on how they implemented the screen. And AFAIK the N9 has a lock button. Could you link me to a video where they woke the N9 with a screen tap? And what I mean by fully wake up is that the screen does not show anything and is actually asleep.

If you are talking about this video or something similar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSZssHGR-Qg

The screen is still active in that "wake up" demo, most obviously so since its displaying something (clock screen saver). I was thinking along the lines of the screen actually being turned off and dark.

 

[abidein]

thanks chan chan and those who helped yes its something like that in the video. i used iphone before this. and i disable auto lock. so the screen will be closed but i just gonna touch the screen to use it (instead of button) and i wanna use home button as little as possible.

 

[Stuntman]

It would probably depend on how they implemented the screen. And AFAIK the N9 has a lock button. Could you link me to a video where they woke the N9 with a screen tap? And what I mean by fully wake up is that the screen does not show anything and is actually asleep.

If you are talking about this video or something similar:
Nokia N9 UI hands-on demo - YouTube

The screen is still active in that "wake up" demo, most obviously so since its displaying something (clock screen saver). I was thinking along the lines of the screen actually being turned off and dark.

Here's a video showing the phone fully in sleep mode and double tapping to wake:

Nokia N9/N950 Unique Feature: Double-Tap wakeup - YouTube

 

[yanmoyiie]

I would imagine that if you can do it on the N9, you can do it on any phone with a capacitive touch screen.

 

[chanchan05]

It says unique feature, and without the knowledge of how exactly they did it, it may be hardware dependent, like a special layer on the capacitive screen that detects physical touches while the screen is off. As I said, capacitive screens work by detecting a magnetic field disturbance to register as your touch. I certainly wont want my screen to be forever running just so I can wake it using a screen tap, that would kill the battery.

 

[Stuntman]

It says unique feature, and without the knowledge of how exactly they did it, it may be hardware dependent, like a special layer on the capacitive screen that detects physical touches while the screen is off. As I said, capacitive screens work by detecting a magnetic field disturbance to register as your touch. I certainly wont want my screen to be forever running just so I can wake it using a screen tap, that would kill the battery.

That would be my concern as well. I'm aware that capacitive screens need power to detect touches. I'm not sure how much or little power capacitive screens need. Certainly when the phone is asleep, it's antenna is still active and that uses a bit of power. Overall, I find that the screen when turned on tends to use the most amount of power on my phone according to the battery meter. What it does not show is how much of this power is due to actually displaying images and how much is to detect touches. I would suspect that detecting touches would use very little power otherwise, it would greatly hinder the battery life of the phone.