User setting to auto-dim screen after a defined period

[galligan]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
This is not related to any problem.

Describe the solution you'd like
It would be great if the user could define a period of time for the app to auto-dim the device's screen using Apple's official API for this. Because the options are limited for auto-lock (no dim option) at the iOS-level, it would be great if the app could handle that much.

For instance, let's say I set an auto-dim timer for 1 minute. This would mean that I can leave the device unlocked, and as long as Auto-Lock is off within iOS, the screen would simply dim to the desired level after 1 minute.

This would have the effect of allowing much faster control of iPads that may be used as control panels on walls. No need to unlock the device with this in place.

Additional context
For a bonus, it would be interesting if you could actually expose the device brightness level control back to Home Assistant. This would allow for some interesting automations where on motion, the screen could return to a high brightness level.

[nanosonde]

Hi!

I am also already using another Smart Home project called www.edomi.de for KNX based installations.
It is also purely based on web technologies.

Somebody hacked together a simple full screen browser for it which automatically dims the screen brightness to the lowest allowed level an app can set.

See https://github.com/s01iD/iOS-EdomiBrowser/blob/2a7c5602fb5938afdd876da9f40f66734b1886d2/Edomi/SupportFiles/AppDelegate.swift

 class func disableScreen() {
        UIScreen.main.brightness = CGFloat(0.0)
        UIScreen.main.wantsSoftwareDimming = true
    }
class func resetBrightness() {
        UIScreen.main.brightness = CGFloat(AppDelegate.defaultBrightNess)
        UIScreen.main.wantsSoftwareDimming = false
    }

Furthermore, this fullscreen browser then shows a black full screen popup so that everything is dark.

I have been using it for over 2 years now without any issues. It is not available in the App store though. Had to compile and install it myself.

I am using it in guided access mode. In the settings of the guided access mode I have set "lock display auto" to "never".

The screen is so dark that you will think that it is off if you walk by. Of course it is NOT completely dark.
If you touch the screen, it will immediately wake up very fast and the web page does not have to reload.
All websocket connections are still in place.

I hope that the iOS companion app could also implement this. Should be an easy task.

[nanosonde]

One remark: now that WKWebView supports WebRTC getUserMedia() over HTTPS, it is very important to keep the signalling websocket open (e.g. SIP over Websocket) and this can only happen if the iOS device does not sleep.
(e.g. this custom card: https://github.com/tommyjlong/doorvivint-card)

As the device does not sleep anymore, it would be important that the displays dims down if the iDevice is not used.

[nanosonde]

@zacwest
Do you think you can easily add this feature based on the PoC here?
https://github.com/s01iD/iOS-EdomiBrowser/tree/master

[zacwest]

To implement this would require adding support for the mobile_app integration to handle arbitrary service calls or switches for the device.

[nanosonde]

@zacwest being new to Home Assistant development, could you please roughly outline what needs to be implemented to get this realized?

[nanosonde]

@zacwest
I would suggest to add controlling the brightness via the integration later. As a first step it would be nice if we would have this "dim backlight" screensaver with just user-definable timeout setting within the app. So no interaction between mobile_app integration in the first instance.

@mg0716
For the time being you could probably use this app: https://github.com/s01iD/WallMountBrowser.git
The same developer from the PoC fortunately decided to release this simple app for free in the app store.
Apple has already accepted the app and it is currently in Testflight phase.

This is the place where it was introduced (sorry, German language only.)

[olekenneth]

Somewhat related to #871

[zacwest]

I don't disagree that it could be implemented app-side with a bunch of settings/controls, but I'd like to avoid writing any kind of automation engine in the app; making things like this available to HA would allow writing automations on HA which can do this.

[galligan]

If you could prevent sleeping, then the rest could be controlled by Home Assistant directly, and not need any app-side automation.

• iOS camera could be a boolean motion sensor
• Screen brightness could be a 0-100% range
  • I believe you could get lux level from the light sensor somehow as well?

So long as you could keep the screen awake, the rest could be automated off-device.

[olekenneth]

If you have a wall mounted tabled, you probably have a charger on it. If you just implement #871 you can automate this by controlling the charger.

[nicop4]

Hello,
Any plan to implement this feature ? This could be a really nice feature to use an iPad as a controller always available and not too intrusive because of the light, which is a show stopper for me today.