Adaptive Brightness uses machine learning in Pie to automatically adjust the display

by Alan Friedman

Nov 20, 2018, 7:19 PM

Before Android 9, Android device manufacturers would use recommendations from the screen manufacturers to determine how bright a screen should be based on ambient lighting. The baseline mapping was the same for all users, and phone owners would have to constantly use the brightness slider to adjust the display to their liking. Setting the slider to the left of center made the screen dimmer than the preset, and moving it to the right of center made it brighter than the preset. Messing with the slider would force the user to constantly make adjustments each time the ambient settings changed.

With Android 9, Google made a change to improve this Adaptive Brightness. Handsets running the latest Android build now use machine learning to figure out how bright or dark a phone's user wants the screen under various ambient lighting conditions. The phone "remembers" every time the user moves the brightness slider to "perfect" the look of the display. In other words, the device is "trained" to automatically make the adjustments to the brightness slider each time the ambient lighting changes. This change is something that the user has to make himself under Android Oreo.

"We believe that screen brightness is one of those things that should just work, and these changes in Android Pie are a step towards realizing that. For the best performance no matter where you are models run directly on the device rather than the cloud, and train overnight while the device charges."-Google

Google says that the model it uses for the improved Adaptive Brightness can be updated, and will be fine tuned based on real time usage. Pixel models have this available now, and the company is talking to Android manufacturers about adding the improvement into the Android Pie builds for their handsets.

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9 Comments

9. Tsepz_GP

Posts: 1227; Member since: Apr 12, 2012

Question is, is this active in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro? Because right now mine is still quite aggressive is display brightness, mostly in Dimming the display a little too much sometimes when i a dark place, which is understandable, but still not exactly what I want. Setting this phone at 50-60% brightness, it still gets great battery life, and does do slight adjustments that seem to be around +/- 10-15% around where you have set it either way, depending on the room lighting.

posted on Nov 21, 2018, 7:51 AM 0

8. AfterShock

Posts: 4147; Member since: Nov 02, 2012

It works well, haven't touched adjust slider since second week after Pie update three plus months ago.

posted on Nov 21, 2018, 7:37 AM 0

3. ijuanp03

Posts: 717; Member since: Dec 30, 2014

I don't like how companies like Google, Apple, Samsung and especially Huawei use the term "machine learning" or "AI" to make a feature sound futuristic. Sony's superior auto has been around for YEARS which automatically adjusts the setting based on what the viewfinder sees (ex. backlit scene) but tech websites never made it a big deal. Only now when bigger companies use them, suddenly everyone is going gaga over these features.

posted on Nov 20, 2018, 10:57 PM 5

4. rouyal

Posts: 1603; Member since: Jan 05, 2018

I agree. I roll my eyes when I see ‘machine learning’ or ‘ai’. Even a basic internet search engine is more intelligent than any of these basic algorithms they’ve been churching up.

posted on Nov 20, 2018, 11:12 PM 2

5. obedchuni

Posts: 341; Member since: Jun 16, 2014

I think Apple doesn't use the term Machine learning instead they use Neural Engine, that same as AI....and I think only google and Huawei does that best, Samsung are behind in this game....

posted on Nov 21, 2018, 12:34 AM 0

6. worldpeace

Posts: 3135; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

But Sony's solution didn't actually "learn" from users input, while the article above said this new feature did actually learn and automatically adjust the brightness so it will be perfectly match what user want'. As comment above said, it's more like Samsung's "Personalized Automatic Brightness Control".

posted on Nov 21, 2018, 1:58 AM 1

7. Tsepz_GP

Exactly, but you got to understand, Sony fans have been holding a grudge for a long time, any chance they get they put it out there.

posted on Nov 21, 2018, 5:38 AM 1

2. e8ght

Posts: 27; Member since: May 25, 2013

I think samsung has already implemented this kinda-same-feature in S7 series way back in 2016 it's called Personalized Automatic Brightness Control. it sorta learns and keep track of your brightness adjustments and apply them automatically in similar lighting conditions. But it's nice to have this feature baked into the OS itself.