Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge
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Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?
It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.
Source code and a downloadable app to try it yourself: https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor
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R ActivityRelay shared this topic
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Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?
It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.
Source code and a downloadable app to try it yourself: https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor
@samhenrigold oof. there's got to be a way this can be used for #surveillance.
How accessible is this to any developer besides Apple (who likely already knows what device you're on, when you're sleeping etc.) ?
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@samhenrigold oof. there's got to be a way this can be used for #surveillance.
How accessible is this to any developer besides Apple (who likely already knows what device you're on, when you're sleeping etc.) ?
@profdiggity why do you think it’s surveillance and not related to keyboard backlight dimming or speaker EQ adjustments or a backup system for clamshell sleep mode or anything else?
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@profdiggity why do you think it’s surveillance and not related to keyboard backlight dimming or speaker EQ adjustments or a backup system for clamshell sleep mode or anything else?
@samhenrigold oh, I don't think it was put there for the purpose of surveillance.
but we know all these sensors in phones can be used for similar purposes, gyroscopes accelerometers etc. So I am always looking the the potential privacy harm / security hole
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@samhenrigold oh, I don't think it was put there for the purpose of surveillance.
but we know all these sensors in phones can be used for similar purposes, gyroscopes accelerometers etc. So I am always looking the the potential privacy harm / security hole
@profdiggity moderate to severe pain in the ass. it’s not documented anywhere, i had to disassemble a system binary, it’s extremely brittle since i had to hard code it to one magic number that works on my device and, according to some people here, doesn’t work on theirs. it’s also extremely noisy and jittery.
if someone can figure out how to turn this into useful, robust tracking data, they’ve earned it tbh.
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@profdiggity moderate to severe pain in the ass. it’s not documented anywhere, i had to disassemble a system binary, it’s extremely brittle since i had to hard code it to one magic number that works on my device and, according to some people here, doesn’t work on theirs. it’s also extremely noisy and jittery.
if someone can figure out how to turn this into useful, robust tracking data, they’ve earned it tbh.
@samhenrigold thanks! just curious mostly.
seems like very unlikely to be a privacy issue and maybe a security issue in contexts where you might be worried about side channel attacks and should be airgapping anyway.
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Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?
It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.
Source code and a downloadable app to try it yourself: https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor
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R AodeRelay shared this topic
