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Help Smart stay feature not working

A

adesweb

Lurker
Hi

Just got my S3 yesterday but having problems with the Smart Stay feature. I have turned it on in the settings but I can only get the eye icon appearing intermittently and only for a split second when it does. Can anyone else get better reliability of this feature?

Very reluctant to send back as I don't think the handset is faulty. The front camera works fine.
 
Not sure if it is still available but I used a program called Spotlight when I had my Droid. It keeps the program you have open from closing due to the autotimeout for the screen. You can select which programs you want to have this feature on. It worked well for me.
 
Thanks,

I am sure there are such alternatives, but would be curious if there are others who have managed to get it consistently working, or if it a known issue which could potentially be patched by Samsung in the future. Even under bright lighting it still fails to work.
 
I just got my s3 yesterday and did the settings to have smart stay on but it hasnt worked once, the icon hasnt appeared at all.
 
Hi. It works fine for me, takes a bit of getting use to and it only checks you eyes every now and again when the eye flashes up. When your screen dims after a second or so the eye flashes back up and then if it detects you are looking at it the brightness goes back to normal. I wear glasses as well and ha e found its ok. Also it doesn't work on every app but find it ok on websites and messaging etc. Also doesn't work in the dark for obvious reasons
 
I have the same experiences as this thread author. All the 'droid boys'at work have had a look and none of them can see why it isnt working? I get a flash from the eye icon, followed very shortly by a dimmed screeen followed within seconds by a shut down screen. Quite frustrating, I have to have the screen timeout set low because of the the poor battery performance i am getting from this device.
 
Ghostrocket said:
Hi there

I kinda know where you are coming from I wondered the same.

However this link to a demo might give you a better understanding of how it's mean't to work.

Samsung Galaxy S3 SmartStay Demo Test - YouTube
Click to expand...

That video was a comedy video showing the feature NOT working :p It's meant to turn off the display completely when you turn away, as shown in the Galaxy S3 advert on TV:

Samsung Galaxy S3 Official Advertisement - YouTube

Scroll to around 45 seconds.

Smart Stay doesn't work for me either, whether I'm wearing glasses, contacts and the amount of natural light is completely irrelevant, it doesn't work at all for me. Every so often the eye flashes up which is supposed to indicate that you're looking at the screen, but it then turns the screen off anyway. I've disabled the feature until Samsung fixes it.
 
Ghostrocket said:
Actually this is a better video, I also believe there has been some artistic license used in that Samsung video

On mine to check its working I set timeout at 15 secs and watched it, it works like a charm.

Samsung Galaxy S3 - Smart Stay feature - YouTube
Click to expand...

Wow I think I completely misunderstood how it was meant to work.. it works perfectly now.

I thought the eye stayed in the notification bar the entire time.

I stared at the screen for a while (with my glasses on) and it stayed on, then I put my phone on the desk and it turned off. :D (it stayed on at first as I think it detected I was looking at the phone from an angle, but I hid from it and it turned off)
 
I'm afraid it's not working well for me. I understood that it only checks momentarily at the end of your screen-off delay, (15 sec, 30 sec, or whatever you set it to), and I make sure I am looking at the screen the whole time and it still dims and goes off. If I have it set for 15 sec, it just means my screen turns off more frequently while I'm reading...
 
My problem is smart stay not working properly. Even if i am looking to the screen, it becomes off automatically. Samsung advertised that when we are looking at the screen, it will not turn off. Any suggesion??
 
mak916 said:
Does anyone know if this feature works when you are wearing eye glasses?
Click to expand...

It does for me.

------------------

Op, is there enough light in the room? When you use the front facing camera, can it see you clearly?

Smart stay works in conjunction with the screen time out setting. Just as the screen is about to time out a little eye will pop up in the notification bar which means that the phone is checking to see if you're watching the screen. You need to be looking at it whilst this eye is there for it to work.

I had difficulty getting it to work outside while I was walking (need to test it more) but it works well indoors.
 
Where it works for me: Any situation where my face is well lit. On a bus in the daytime, for example.

Where it doesn't work for me: Any situation where my face is in shadow. For example, sat in the living room at home with my back to the window in the daytime.

I wear glasses and these don't seem to give it any problems.
 
Internaut said:
Where it doesn't work for me: Any situation where my face is in shadow. For example, sat in the living room at home with my back to the window in the daytime.
Click to expand...

I'm sat in a living room right now with my back to the window and my face in shadow, and for the first time since I got the phone smart stay is actually working nicely!

The difference is that I'm using the phone in landscape. It seems that having the camera to the far left of the phone is helping smart stay track my eyes.
 
matttye said:
It does for me.

------------------

Op, is there enough light in the room? When you use the front facing camera, can it see you clearly?

Smart stay works in conjunction with the screen time out setting. Just as the screen is about to time out a little eye will pop up in the notification bar which means that the phone is checking to see if you're watching the screen. You need to be looking at it whilst this eye is there for it to work.

I had difficulty getting it to work outside while I was walking (need to test it more) but it works well indoors.
Click to expand...
Then whats the use of this thing? usually we are using a phone inside the room. There may be light or not. I think this thing is absurd.
 
dileepb said:
Then whats the use of this thing? usually we are using a phone inside the room. There may be light or not. I think this thing is absurd.
Click to expand...

How do you expect the front facing camera to see your eyes without good enough lighting conditions? Samsung can't argue with physics!

The phone works in dimly lit rooms in my house but it struggles when lights are off and its gloomy.
 
Yeah, well on my 2nd phone now from o2 and mine doesn't work either. Set to timeout after 15 secs with smart stay enabled but although the eye icon flashes the phone dims and shuts off - very annoying when reading a web page. Guess it can be switched off and set to timeout after 10mins; but the point is this selling feature of the phone just doesn't work, or does it? You see I called Samsung Mobile support and the guy I talked to admitted there was an issue with it, but then went on to say that it depends on the phone, that it does work on some. Personally I don't believe him. He reckoned I was really unlucky to have the same issue with two different phones. But I have my doubts that it properly works on any. I have challended Samsung to supply me with one anyway. Or afraid I will probably go for the HTC One X instead.
 
I merged two similar SmartStay feature threads together, sorry about any confusion that may cause.
 
I had the same problem too. Then I thought maybe I was too close and the camera can't make out my eyes. So I tried to look at the phone from arm's length and it worked. And I progressively moved closer until it stopped working. In conclusion, you need to have your face at least 1 foot (30cm) away from the phone. Maybe Samsung did this to stop you going crossed eye from looking at things too close up?:ridinghorse:
 
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