Creating tappable black screen to prevent screen lock?

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Michael Glaun

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Jul 10, 2016, 9:10:30 AM7/10/16
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I have a Samsung Galaxy S7. Not rooted. Locked with fingerprint. AMOLED screen.
When listening to my music player while doing sport or driving, I want to be able to just tap the screen quickly and make it come on without the fuss of pressing the Home button and then using fingerprint to unlock. So I had the idea of creating a profile when my music player is on that does the following:
1. Keep screen on for 1 minute.
2. Then display a full black screen overlay that covers the screen (scene).
3. When the black screen is tapped (I guess the scene has a large invisible button in the middle), the scene is destroyed and reveals my music player screen.
4. The 1-minute timer then starts all over again while the music play is on the foreground.
I am a Tasker noob and tried to do this on my own using info posted in this group, but I failed miserably. :( One thing I tried was something posted a long time ago in this group (link), which used a timer scenario, but back then scenes were still in beta and this failed also.
Can anyone please help me with scripting this in Tasker? It would be of great help if it could be scripted like in the example I linked to before.
Thank you. :)

Rich D

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Jul 10, 2016, 10:11:14 AM7/10/16
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> 1. Keep screen on for 1 minute.
> 2. Then display a full black screen overlay that covers the screen (scene).
> 3. When the black screen is tapped (I guess the scene has a large invisible button in the middle), the scene is destroyed and reveals my music player screen.
> 4. The 1-minute timer then starts all over again while the music play is on the foreground.

To be clear, for this step you are just trying to get a 'idle timer' to work. so if your music player is in the foreground untouched for 1 min then you will show the blank 'screen protector'. correct?

Have you tried brads suggestion about the  Screebl plug in ?

Rich D

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Jul 10, 2016, 10:25:19 AM7/10/16
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Here is a discussion where I tried one solution to this. not sure if it will work for you.

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/Tasker/NOKMCbLB14U

Michael Glaun (Gmail)

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Jul 10, 2016, 10:25:44 AM7/10/16
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Thanks Rich for getting back to me.
Yes, a simple idle-timer as you described above. If possible though, the timer should reset itself if I interact with the phone while the music player is running. So basically it's 1 minute after my last interaction when the music player is in the foreground, and not 1 minute from when the timer restarted itself last, regardless of how many interactions I made since then.
If I move away from my music player app, then the profile is deactivated and my phone should go back into it's normal lock display off and lock state.
I did review the Screebl app on Google Play, but didn't install it. It looked like overkill to me, uses movement sensor (I might be wrong about this one), and it means yet another app running in the background on my phone. It was also last updated January 2014, which seems likely that the app is dead.

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Michael Glaun (Gmail)

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Jul 10, 2016, 10:37:16 AM7/10/16
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I don't know. As I said I am a noob, and there is a bit of techie talk there with a few options mentioned.
It would help immensely if you could give a quick shorthand script of how to program it into Tasker. :) I don't even mind to start off with a timer that that just runs and resets itself every minute regardless of any last interactions while the music player is in the foreground.


On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Rich D <ricp...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a discussion where I tried one solution to this. not sure if it will work for you.

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/Tasker/NOKMCbLB14U

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joaomgcd

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Jul 11, 2016, 4:57:56 AM7/11/16
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You could create a black screen with AutoTools that would allow you to control music on the screen itself :)
Check out an example here:

Michael Glaun

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Jul 11, 2016, 7:01:21 AM7/11/16
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Oh, wow!! That is awesome what you did. Definitely hardcore stuff which I will look into over the weekend when I have spare time.
Actually yesterday, I managed to succeed on my own with what I intended. My only glitch is that scenes in Tasker don't seem to cover the status bar at the top, so while the screen it totally black after 20 seconds (and comes back on with a tap), the status bar is always displayed.
Any ideas how to overcome that would be most helpful.
Thanks.

João Dias

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Jul 11, 2016, 7:25:58 AM7/11/16
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The Gestures screen has a full screen option that will also hide the status bar :)

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Pent

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Jul 11, 2016, 7:42:55 AM7/11/16
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Actually yesterday, I managed to succeed on my own with what I intended. My only glitch is that scenes in Tasker don't seem to cover the status bar at the top,

In Show Scene you need to use Full Screen instead of Full Window.

Pent

Michael Glaun (Gmail)

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Jul 11, 2016, 8:09:07 AM7/11/16
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Pent, the Show Scene option I have been using is "Overlay, Blocking, Full Window". I don't see any options with "Full Screen". There are some options with "Full Display", such as "Activity, Full Display" and "Activity, Full Display, No Bar". However, when I choose the "Activity..." options the scene flashes on the screen for a split second and then disappears.

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Michael Glaun (Gmail)

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Jul 11, 2016, 8:42:58 AM7/11/16
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Disregard my last - found why scene is flashing on then off.
"Activity, Full Display, No Bar" totally did the trick. Thanks Pent! :)
Thanks everyone else for your input. Looking forward to my next Tasker project.

Jay M

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Jul 11, 2016, 8:59:25 AM7/11/16
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And the addiction begins!


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Michael Glaun

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Jul 12, 2016, 7:26:53 AM7/12/16
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It seems I need your expert input after all for the Tasker project I created.
Just to put you in context, the following is supposed to happen... when Music Player is running, a black screen covers the screen after 25 seconds, when tapped is the black screen is removed, and the cycle starts all over again.
The problem is that after I exit the Music Player app, the black still appears just one more time because of the previous loop that was already started. I am stumped as to how to kill the running loop as soon as I exit the  Music Player app.

Here's my project:
==============
Profile: "GoneMAD Music Player" -> Enter Task: Show Black Screen

Task: "Show Black Screen"
1. Display Timeout: 59 min (this is so I don't get the lock screen)
2. Wait: 25 seconds
3. Show Scene: "Black Screen", Display as "Activity, Full Screen, No Bar".

Scene: "Black Screen"
Background Color: Black
Contains UI Element:
UI -> Geometry (covers most of the screen)
Background -> Black
Tap -> Destroy Scene: "Black Screen"

Any ideas? I tried to put a Stop Task "Show Black Screen" at various point but to no avail.

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