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Auto brightness works the opposite way it should

381 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Jodi O
I think Amazon should consider a careful look at the auto brightness feature, which works just the opposite way it should.

The Kindle device screen technology is different from a smartphone screen. It is light reflexive, not light emissive. Because of the e-ink technology, it works reflecting part of the environment light (just as real paper does), the opposite way of a phone screen, which throws light (radiation) directly to our eyes.

Hence, the brightness control should do the opposite job as well.

In a phone screen, you need more luminosity in a brighter environment and less screen luminosity in a dark room. In a dark room, going zero brightness makes it impossible to see anything on the LCD/LED screen.

The Kindle device the opposite way: you don't need brightness at all in a bright environment! You could turn it zero. The screen reflects the environment light just as a real book page does. On the other hand, in a dark room you need some artificial light to read, again, just like a real book.

To sum up: auto brightness control should reduce brightness in clear environments and increase (not too much because it blinds you) in a dark room. Just the opposite way of the auto brightness control of a LCD/LED phone.

I can't understand why Amazon who created the e-ink technology haven't noticed such a mistake yet. Many users are complaining about the auto brightness feature, saying it doesn't work, but they didn't realize it is working, but the opposite way people expect. But you set up the auto brightness feature as you do in a Kindle Fire and smartphones.

At least Amazon should consider including an option to invert the way the auto brightness feature work. They'll see lots of people say: 'Wow! It finally worked well!'.

P.S. please forget any language mistakes I might've made. I'm not an english native speaker.
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Your basic assumption is wrong. You say the Kindle screen is not light emissive. If it were not light emissive, why would it need any brightness control? It does emit light, but the light source is above and bounces off the screen rather than coming from below as in a phone. It amounts to the same thing as far a brightness control. I suspect the Amazon engineers know what they are doing.

Your English is fine.
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You can easily test it to confirm the assumption:
If you have a Kindle at your hands right now, try setting zero brightness on a sunny afternoon. You can clearly see the words. Then do the same with your phone. Can you see the difference?

Actually the phone manufacturers don't allow you to set zero brightness on the phone. Because it would be impossible to operate the device afterwards. The screen would go all black and you would probably ask for a refund. But on a Kindle you can and there's no such risk.

Maybe the confusion is due to the term "brightness". I kept the same term the device uses, but I agree it is not the most appropriate for reflexive screens.

Technically the reflection/addition screens use what is called color addition and color subtraction. Engineers know that. Take a look at these references below. And try searching the topic on Quora, there are lots of good answers.

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J C: I don't wish to debate the matter. And I don't believe I could change your mind. Good luck to you. Maybe you should contact Amazon and see what they say.
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I think I read somewhere once that the reasoning behind the direction that auto brightness works is due to the fact that in dimmer situations you need less backlight/front light and that it saves your eyes from straining too much for the screen to appear dimmer when in dimmer environments and brighter when in a bright environment and u need more light from your device. I see your point about not needing any light in bright environments with e ink displays but I still think that in dim situations it is probably healthier to not have a bright light shining in your eyes for hours while u read. Its funny but I distinctly remember back around 2010-2012 or so, when e-readers started getting frontlights that my eye doctor was talking to me and mentioned that kindles work the opposite way one would think they should. I don't know what his reasoning was, or if it applied to smartphones and LCDs too and I'm not sure if he was saying that they SHOULD be setup opposite or if he was just saying it's interesting how it works. We'll never know as he is retired now. I will agree, amazon could let u invert the direction the screen changes so people could choose for themselves. Maybe write them an email... but I'm sure alot of research has gone into their approach.

Sent from my SM-T970 using Tapatalk
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If you don't like the way the auto-brightness feature works, turn it off and set the brightness where you want it, and change it as you feel the need.

That said, it is the case that, in dim light, you'll need less light from your kindle to read clearly. And too bright a light may feel like it strains your eyes. In very bright light, I still find it helpful to have some level of kindle lighting as it makes the contrast better for me. Especially if I'm outside and using sunglasses.
That's exactly what I'm doing. I turn it off and set it manually. But the point is that we pay for this feature as a plus that makes signature edition what it is, but unfortunately I know a lot of users that also turn it off.

It's interesting that even on the auto mode, you can limit the max brightness it goes. It could also work the same if inverted, dimming the max when in a dark room, avoiding the eye strain.

What is nonsense is going max when you are in a sunny place. Who reads a real book (paper) in that situation with a torch? I always think about reading on Kindles the same way I read on a real book.
You can try training your Kindle’s ambient light sensor to your preference.

When outside in bright light, with the Auto Brightness box checked move the Brightness slider to 0.
You can try training your Kindle’s ambient light sensor to your preference.

When outside in bright light, with the Auto Brightness box checked move the Brightness slider to 0.
I tried this solution once. Someone said it could work on another forum.

It works for outside, but it remains zero when you go back to dark. Hence, this action turns the auto control useless. I understand that the sensor algorithm always works increasing the LEDs when going outside and decreasing when going indoors. If you set zero when outdoors, it becomes the upper limit: going indoors just makes the algorithm try to decrease even more, and it can't go less then zero (obviously). So it remains always zero. Check it!

When I suggest to Amazon to add the option to invert the way it works, it would solve this problem. Going indoors would increase the LEDs intensity. We would just set the max limit manually to avoid eye strain and voilà: zero brightness outside and the level you feel confort in dark places.
I was able to train mine properly for outdoor and indoor, but the adjustments were TOO sensitive. The light was constantly changing, even if I just shifted in my seat. It was annoying so I turned it off.
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