Motorola Droid camera autofocus fixed in secrecy? (Update: it's a date-related self-correction)
By Vlad Savov 
posted November 17th 2009 3:02PM
posted November 17th 2009 3:02PM
Update: Sure enough, we can confirm from testing one of our own Droids that the issue has been resolved. The endless quest for the green focus box is over, and you can now finally begin scanning all your discount cards into Key Ring.
Update 2: And things have turned surreal. Dan Morrill, from Google's Android team, has confirmed that there's a date-related bug in the Droid's camera software that leads to it having cycles of good and bad focus that depend on the date. Our own testing confirmed this, as backdating to the 11th of November returned those red bars of failure. Apparently, the cycles last 24.5 days, meaning that you'll have good focus all the way to December 11, when the real fix is expected to drop. So breathe easy, Gotham, there are no phantom updates, just an oddly date-sentient camera.
[Thanks, AlexL and Kaiser]
If you're gonna post a link to your site, you're gonna need a comment with more substance. I'm still downranking.
Just took some pictures and I got the green corners even at different distances. Very happy about this update. All I really need now is Better Keyboard to release support for a multitouch keyboard and I will be set.
In Soviet Russia Droid updates for you. It's ALIVE.
Big Agree just took some shots as a test and It is significantly improved from earlier pictures. Glad that my 5Mp camera is worth a damn now. As soon as we can get some root access on this thing it should be a simple matter to put the Telus rom on here and get some sweet multi touch action.
I can confirm as well it's fixed. On a forum an idiot was insisting it was fixed because he cleaned his camera lens. It's obvious there was some kind of update. The camera is actually usable now instead of completely broken.
Pfft, even with its 5mpx camera its still nothing compared to iPhone. Hell, even the iPod Nano has better video quality, and its 1.3 mpx!!
James:
no actually....
sorry that's not true
LOL @ iJames. Dude, I don't know WHAT you're talking about, but 2 things here.
1. The Nano Video can't take pictures
2. The camera is VGA 0.3mp http://www.macmall.com/p/Apple-MP3-Players-&-Accessories/product~dpno~7921671~pdp.fhffbba
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/anything-apple/5g-ipod-nano-video-in-the-flesh/
Have fun comparing something that shoots low resolution 640x480 to a high res flash/autofocus D1 (720x480) @ 24fps.
Guys its not a silent update! It's actually just the code of the autofocus has a rounding error of the date/time. Read these posts on page 2 from AlexL and Dan Morrill:
"What if there was no silent fix pushed out, but rather the autofocus code was broken because specific states of the clock was interfering with the operation of the autofocus code? So when a certain time/date passed, the issue no longer exists and the code became functional by itself."
"Yes, this is exactly what is happening.
There's a rounding-error bug in the camera driver's autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle. That is, it'll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again.
The 17th is the start of a new "works correctly" cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works."
Crazy huh? All you conspiracy theorists dont have to worry about your phone being "silently" crippled. I'm just happy its fixed.
That's a really strange error - er...why does "autofocus" have a timestamp?
Freakin Ijit: This is just a guess, but in programming, it's common to get a random number off of the time of the system, since it is constantly changing really really fast. Time in most systems are represented in a decimal number, the left side of the decimal representing the Year, Month, and Day; while the right of the decimal represents the Hour, minute, second, etc.
Again, just another guess, but I bet the time stamp is being pulled to tell the camera how to adjust the image it's taking. For example, this one pixel of the image is, in real life, half red, and half green. Which color should I make it when I digitize it? We'll randomly pick a number between 0 and 1 (ie: 0.675489). If it rounds up to 1, well make it green. If it rounds down to 0, well make it red.
Just random guessing in the dark here...
As per my previous comment: Tam's comment further on (pg 2 with my settings right now) gives you more specific number math. Although it does make your brain explode.
Thanks for the responses - I'm familiar with the signed/unsigned common problem. I asked over at the other comment "Why does autofocus need "counts" to do its thing?"...
Again, thanks for the pointer there.
So every now and then, during what one may call a monthly cycle, the autofocus will freak out and behave like a little bitch and blame something else for all its woes.
Hmm. Okay.
@ iJames - I here Steve Jobs is ashamed and embarassed to have you associate yourself with his products.
@Ramifications et al:
24.5 days is approximately the number of milliseconds it takes to get to max int. So it's probably not a rounding error but a signed/unsigned int error in 2 different routines.
@keefer
Damn ... you mathematician programmers know your shit.
It's the work of red magic. As oppose to that evil black magic.
It's more like fuchsia magic
I don't think its magic--I think Verizon just wants to say they used the force:
Customer: I've been having some issues with my droid's camera
Verizon Rep: [with a small wave of his hand] These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Customer: Wtf are you talking about...that makes no sense
Verizon Rep: [with another small wave of his hand] AT&T has inferior 3G coverage.
Customer: Dude, are you going to help me with my camera issue or no?
Verizon Rep: [with another small wave of his hand] You have no camera problem.
Customer: I have....no....camera...problem
Verizon Rep: You can leave now. Move along.
A phone with a period? Dear lord! I've seen it all now!
Oh dear god.
That glowing red eye in the Ads... wasn't an eye D:
Does your phone have a menstrual cycle?
Droid does
Dang, several people including Anthony beat me to it.
How about a new catch phrase like, "Droid, it's one b*tchin phone" ... No? No.
=/ I got nothin. (wtb humor and originality)
you are an idiot
Hows your iPhone holding up?
Now if only they could patch that fuzzy cloud that keeps appearing on my pictures
That's easy, comb your hair. :D
Nope i'm pretty sure thats a cataract you should prolly go to a doctor man.
That's how my dog died!
I would like to see an update that when you forward something you would not have to put each person in at a time. Like an option to go to contact and click multiple ones and then send. This method that is use seems so old school for nephone out there.
wow, i was reading that post and thought it was spam from one of those spambots. when i came to the end and found no URL i realized it was a "real" comment
Wow, now that's a good start to the morning. My Droid is focusing like a champ.
My DROID seems to have "fixed itself" as well. I think they may have pushed this out last night.
I posted a YouTube video about this problem about 5 days ago with most people having the same problem. Last night at about 2am I got a video response for approval in my inbox on YouTube.
The guy claimed to "solve the non-auto-focusing issue" by simply breathing some hot air on it and then buffing it with a cloth. I thought it was too good to be true! Sounds much more plausible that Motorola silently pushed this update out.
And if you are still having problems with this, don't go to Verizon, they are clueless. Call Motorola customer support. They are actually pretty good at handling this problem.
Sweet, the camera actually works now! It's pretty sick that they pushed this out silently.
Dam. Returned mine yesterday. I was worried that the post-return-period fix wouldn't fix it.
D.
i think one can safely say SELFPWND on that one
Got Engadget-comment-system ownd. Was meant for a spammer. This is meant for drzeller. Let's see where it lands.
This is as uncomfortable as accidentally walking into a stranger's room.
*awkward silence*
....nice curtains.
What's really gonna suck is when you get your phone back on December 12 and it doesn't focus, but the guy in Taiwan who tried to fix it couldn't find the problem because it was a green day.
if my 3G plan has only 1GB monthly limit, will my phone bill get owned by Droid's magical updates?
perhaps i should invest in unlimited data plans....
I'm pretty sure the updates don't count towards data.
Also, what kind of crap ass plan only has 1Gb data a month??
There's no 5GB limit on the smartphone plans from verizon. It only applies the tethering plans and data cards. The issue's been discussed at length on droidforums.
@Dan: there is 100% a 5GB cap on smartphone use that is separate from the tethering data. Don't believe me? use over 5 GB of data on your droid by web browsing and all for a few months...
@sam:
Documentation, please. Verizon says unlimited for smartphones, 5GB for tethering. they say that in the fine print. Unless you've got hard evidence otherwise, I'll go with what's written down.
@Sanskrit
Actually you just need to get better at reading fine print.
"Anyone using more than 5 GB per line in a given month is presumed to be using the service in a manner prohibited above, and we reserve the right to immediately terminate the service of any such person without notice."
It's in the Calling Plan information under Data Plans and Features when you click on a plan.
Actually, there WAS a 5GB Limit on all Smart Phones for Verizon. Verizon lifted this limit for the DROID, and DROID only. Blackberry / other smartphone users are stuck with a 5GB cap. I've confirmed this on my account as well as on a friend's blackberry account.
Hey guys, this aint good, silent updates should not happen, not ever... That's why changelogs are always done.
I agree.
I'm happy that my camera is now usable, but I'm a little worried that something like this can happen. Who's to say it won't be used to take something away at some point, or what if they push out a silent update and it actually breaks something?
Agreed. Look at the shitstorm that occurs when Microsoft , Apple, or Amazon try to do "stealth" modifications to people's devices. But I guess it all depends what side of the $199 you are standing on :p