Re: [sensors] Device Proximity (was: Device light and proximity sensor)

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From: "Marcos Caceres" <w3c@marcosc.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 5:18 AM
To: "Tran, Dzung D" <dzung.d.tran@intel.com>
Cc: "Doug Turner" <dougt@mozilla.com>; "Robin Berjon" <robin@berjon.com>; 
<public-device-apis@w3.org>
Subject: Re: [sensors] Device Proximity (was: Device light and proximity 
sensor)

>> You are leaving it to the OEMs who build the HW device and integrating 
>> the OS to determine what is far versus near.

> This is correct. I assume they would know best (could be a bad assumption, 
> but seems that it would be in there interest to provide good sensors if 
> they want to have a competitive product). >Note that I was also advocating 
> for having both the data and the HW/OS determined far/near.

Yes. we can have both data and interpreted far/near. It may also help 
generalizing the sensor specs at a later point in time. I think, we should 
provide an algorithm to compute far/near.


>> Different proximity sensors might have different ranges. You also 
>> assuming that the OS will give you this "far" versus "near" value.

> This is only an issue if we are seeing crazy variation in ranges… like 
> 50cm to 1meter. I can research this a bit more. I don't imagine there is 
> that much variation in the hardware for the the >particular use case 
> (though if anyone has some evidence to the contrary, please present it).

If I am not wrong, proximity sensors can also have sensing ranges in feet.


> I again would plead that we are clear about the use case. If we get 
> agreement/consensus about what the use case is, then it might make the 
> design of the API more straight forward.

I would not restrict the use cases just to detecting how close the user's 
face is to the screen. I would imagine a proximity sensor (externally 
installed, having sensing range of about a few feet) that alerts the shop 
owner when someone comes closer to the door.

Received on Thursday, 10 May 2012 07:05:39 UTC