ISeeYou – keeps your phone screen on when you look at it
Sound familiar? For those who didn’t watched the launch of the most publicized phone of this years first half, this is how is described the Smart Stay feature from Samsung Galaxy S III.
The front camera is used to recognize the user and to detect the moments when he looks at the screen. While the user reads something on the screen, the device will not enter in standby. Well, this function can now be implemented on other smartphones, via the ISeeYou application.
The ISeeYou application comes in two versions: a free version and a paid one. The first one starts the front camera every 15-20 seconds and scans the user, blocking the screen command if necessary.
The second version allows you to change the length of time between scans and the actual scanning time. ISeeYou comes with some limitations and can not be installed on any Android based smartphone. First, the terminal must have the front camera. Most new phones have that. Then, it is only compatible with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The features provided by the ISeeYou application seems very useful in theory. In practice, things are not so clear. It can save consumption when the phone screen is large and it is a major consumer, setting a short entry in stand by time. The application thus allows us to read or watch something on the screen without care about the time mentioned above. Unfortunately, running the front camera and scanning the images is an activity that can consume a lot of energy.
It may be that for small screen phones or more economical, economy made by switching off the screen faster, can be canceled by the front camera consumption. For those who want to try the ISeeYou application, a free version available here, and the paid one costs $ 0.99. Note that first impressions are not all positive and the application behavior may differ from one phone to another.
