Apple MacBooks have a sensor that measures the angle of the screen —Engineer taps into hidden ‘LidAngleSensor’ API to create a creaky door simulator

An engineer has tapped into Apple’s LidAngleSensor MacBook API to create an app which displays the angle read from the sensor on the screen. Though a cool and worthy tool in its own right, Sam Gold’s app is elevated to a higher plane as it also includes an audio feedback option to “play a wooden door creaking sound if you adjust it reeaaaaaal slowly.” A video demonstration is embedded below,

Product designer and engineer, Gold, explained to their X followers that the LidAngleSensor API isn’t exposed to the public, but he still managed to figure out how to read it. A more technical explanation of the API, what devices use it, as well as downloads of the code and a ready-compiled app can be found on Github.

Since the LidAngleSensor.app was announced at the weekend, Gold has fielded many queries and requests via social media. A pretty common question was why he had created this app. The answer seems to be that Gold currently has a lot of free time, but is eager to start something more meaningful and full-time “in NYC or remote.” So, perhaps this quirky project could precipitate a great job for this imaginative fellow.

Gold also tried to address various MacBook model incompatibilities, but he doesn’t have access to every modern Apple laptop. The creaky door sound source was revealed in a FAQ to be poached from LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

Theremin mode delivered

There have been lots of fun suggestions for adapting the LidAngleSensor.app for new sounds and purposes. These range from the practical, like a protractor mode for a wood shop, to the hilarious, like a Pac-Man controller “where you have to open and close the laptop to move,” suggested by Gold.

However, Gold was emboldened and inspired enough by his own brainwave idea of creating a theremin mode to actually implement this elegant and ghostly electronic instrument in the app.

We are pretty sure there’s more to come from this app and the unearthed API access. Someone with more patience “could implement this as a MIDI instrument, or an accordion,” suggested Gold. “But that person is not me.”

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