What Is an Ambient Light Sensor?
An ambient light sensor is a device that measures the light conditions in an environment. Also known as illuminance or brightness sensors, these sensors are integral in features like automatic brightness adjustment in mobile devices and computers, and white balance in digital cameras.
These sensors use elements like phototransistors or photodiodes as light receptors, which convert incident light into an electrical current corresponding to the level of illuminance. Due to the typically low current generated by photodiodes, amplifiers are often used to boost and measure the signal. The effectiveness of ambient light sensors is gauged by their color temperature sensitivity, range of illuminance measurement, and transmission speed.