Sony Launches Illumination bar API
Sony Mobile has opened up its Application Programming Interface (API) for the illumination bar, that can be found on some of the Xperia models. It was expected that this feature would come, since there are a lot of tweaks you can perform to play with light effects.
The feature is in experimental stage, says Sony, but at least developers will get a chance to use the bar’s functionality in apps and custom ROMs. Sony is not supporting the API and it comes with limited documentation, so the heavy lifting is done by the devs. Back to the bar, this API will let the illumination bar change its color, frequency of pulses and some predefined fading patterns.
I see good use for that in music players, video players, even some cool games intended for Xperias. Also, some quirky notification systems make take advantage of this or even a disco app that simply makes the handset shine. The list of models with this bar includes the Xperia SP, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia UL and Xperia A.
