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Posted by leephillips 6 days ago

The MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge(twitter.com)
Alts: https://hachyderm.io/@samhenrigold/115159295473019599, https://bsky.app/profile/samhenri.gold/post/3ly7252lx422d

Theremin Mode: https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1964464940049453153

Github: https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor

1014 points | 487 commentspage 4
hyperhello 5 days ago|
Is there a downloadable source for this? I’d love to add it.
latexr 5 days ago|
https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor
fwip 5 days ago||
My understanding is that this sensor is used to help adjust speaker behavior for better sound, but I can't find a link to support that.
nodesocket 5 days ago||
Seems like they should expose it, perhaps done for security reasons. I can in-vision some interesting apps using the angle.
nickdothutton 5 days ago||
MacBook Protractor
a-dub 5 days ago||
my guess: probably there to support the camera system and depth camera.

although unless there's some sort of angle measurement with respect to the ground in the base, i'm not sure what it would be useful for. maybe to provide continuity for the depth camera when the lid angle is changing (without heavy duty estimation calculations).

gjsman-1000 5 days ago||
The Nintendo Switch 2 according to Welcome Tour can also detect hinge angle. Unclear if this is a sensor or clever math though.
danielbln 5 days ago|
I bet it's just the built-in gyro.
comrade1234 6 days ago||
Is it the angle of the hinge or the angle of the screen? I assume the latter... my laptop is rarely on a level surface.
Sharlin 5 days ago|
At first I wondered why you'd assume the latter – certainly something like a tiny rotary encoder is a simpler lower-tech solution than a MEMS inclinometer. But these days I'm not actually so sure.
joezydeco 5 days ago|||
They're using a pretty nifty differential Hall magnetic encoder, like this one:

https://www.novosns.com/en/hall-angle-sensor-4010

There's a fun Hackaday video using the same type of part in a rotary knob + LCD control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIrAe23f8sg

Sharlin 4 days ago||
Cool, thanks!
jeffbee 5 days ago|||
Without checking the catalog, I would assume that a MEMS inclinometer is much cheaper in 2025 than an absolute position encoder.

Edit: catalog confirms.

Sharlin 4 days ago||
Thanks. Clearly my intuition was out of date.
chipsrafferty 5 days ago||
Someone should make a video game where you have to jerk the hinge back and forth for basic movement
batrat 5 days ago||
How is this useful? I don't get it? Is not a touchscreen, doesn't fold...
RajBhai 5 days ago|
It would be cool if the Macbook can figure out the relative position of a newly connected external monitor. It would help in setting up the monitor with little manual adjustments.

Since covid, we no longer have assigned desks at work --- it's first come, first served. And while most are respectful of the desks we have "chosen" for ourselves, every once in a while, I'll have to sit at some other, often new desk. And that means my laptop will not recognize the monitor and that I'll have to configure it (scaling, relative position, etc).

And Windows being the mediocre OS that it is, will always select to duplicate the screens even though the logical choice is to extend. My laptop screen and the external monitor aren't even the same aspect ratio. SMH.

At least Macs have the sense to extend screens by default. Though, if I could place a Macbook on the desk, plug in the external monitor, tilt the screen back until the camera can see the monitor, the hinge sensor and cameras can work together to figure out where the monitor is relative to the laptop, and automatically determine the right settings for the monitor instead of requiring my intervention.

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