Abstract: An electronic device includes a display, an illumination sensor, a distance detecting unit, a storage unit and a control unit. The illumination sensor periodically detects a current ambient illumination. The distance detecting unit periodically detects a current distance between a user and the electronic device. The control unit determines a corresponding current illumination level, and compares the current illumination level with a historical illumination level. If the current illumination level differs from the historical illumination level, the control unit further compares the current distance with a historical distance. If the current distance differs from the historical distance, the control unit maintains the brightness of the display; otherwise, the control unit adjusts the brightness of the display according to the illumination level.

Abstract: A computing device and method starts applications via voice commands. The computing device records a sound input by a microphone of the computing device and sends the recorded sound input to a sound sensor of the computing device. Furthermore, the computing device reads a voice command by an embedded controller of the computing device from the sound sensor, in response to a determination that the recorded sound input matches a predetermined verbal statement of the voice command. The computing device notifies an operating system of the computing device to start the application corresponding to the voice command.