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Disguise screens

During the show your phone shouldn't look like a magic app. The disguise screens make it look like something innocent — a dark screen, your home screen, the lock screen, a calculator — while MysterSmith keeps working: it collects the spectator's input, shows you the secret information, and reacts to your secret gestures.

Start them from the performance screen (after START ROUTINE): BLACK SCREEN, HOMESCREEN, PASSCODE, CALCULATOR, and the input screens DICE SCREEN, SWIPE INPUT, MORSE INPUT, THUMBWRITER. On these screens the app's own status icons and messages are hidden.

Screen Add-on
BLACK SCREEN, FAKE HOMESCREEN, THUMBWRITER, MORSE INPUT none
FAKE PASSCODE, CALCULATOR, SWIPE SCREEN, DICE INPUT Advanced Input Methods

Every screen has an Action after screen started — it runs right after the screen opens (e.g. WEB-polling START, or motion control START).

BLACK SCREEN

The phone looks switched off — but it's a black canvas that can show you things: drawings from impression boards and the Doodle screen (white on black), Image Buffer images, A.I. drawings, and recognized texts in a dim band at the bottom.

Settings → Output / Screens → BLACK SCREEN:

  • Clear screen on ROUTINE START
  • Crop & ZOOM drawings (on) — enlarges drawings to fill the screen.
  • Screen visibility (0-10) — how bright the contents are (default 10).
  • Touch to peek (off) — the screen stays completely black; hold one finger on it to see the contents (at Peek visibility (1-10)), lift it and they're gone.
  • Peek duration (1–5 s) — for the peek BLACK screen contents action.
  • Gestures: 1 finger single tap, 1 finger DOUBLE tap, 2 finger single tap, 2 finger DOUBLE tap, 1 finger swipe UP / DOWN, 2 finger swipe UP / DOWN — each with its own action.

Actions (BLACK SCREEN group): show BLACK screen contents, hide BLACK screen contents, peek BLACK screen contents (shows them for the Peek duration), quickly peek BLACK screen (flashes the black screen for a second over any other screen), BLACK screen opacity +1 / -1.

Exit: hold one finger for 2 seconds (with Touch to peek: two fingers).

FAKE HOMESCREEN

A full-screen screenshot of your real home screen. The spectator sees your phone "doing nothing" — while your gestures trigger actions.

Settings → Output / Screens → FAKE HOMESCREEN:

  • Set custom screenshot → Select — take a screenshot of your home screen and pick it here (or use a blank / black default image).
  • Enable swipe input — your one-finger swipes on the home screen are read as SWIPE input (the 2-finger swipes use the SWIPE SCREEN's actions).
  • Gestures: the same 8 taps and swipes as on the black screen.

Exit: hold one finger for 2 seconds.

FAKE PASSCODE (lock screen)

A realistic lock screen (iOS or Android style, with clock and date). The spectator swipes up, and enters "a passcode" — which is really their secret number, card or time. Then the phone "unlocks" to the fake homescreen.

Settings → Input methods → FAKE PASSCODE:

  • Set wallpaper — from your gallery, or a stock image.
  • Input method: number, card, time, ACAAN or tic-tac-toe:
    • number — the first N digits (Length of number (digits), 1–6), optionally Pi Revelations (3-4 digits),
    • card — 1st digit = suit (1–4), next two = value (1–13); Suit order (SHCD or CHSD), Short card names,
    • time — HHMM,
    • ACAAN — two digits for the position, then the card,
    • tic-tac-toe — the X positions (1–9).
  • Unlock at attempt (1–10) — the earlier attempts are "wrong", so the spectator can try several times.
  • Show/save every passcode — every attempt goes into the Text Buffer and to your PeekSmith.
  • Actions for last digit → Set actions — an action for each last digit (0–9).
  • 24-hour clock format, Dark background (white text for dark wallpapers), Always-on lockscreen (a dim always-on display after 10 s; a 2-finger swipe down shows it at once).
  • Enable dynamic island / Adjust dynamic island (iPhones with a dynamic island).
  • Action after passcode unlock + Trigger action.

Exit: hold one finger for 2 seconds.

CALCULATOR

A working calculator that looks like the phone's own (iOS stock, Android dark or Android light) — and can force a result or save the spectator's number secretly.

Settings → Input methods → CALCULATOR:

  • Calculator style, Haptic feedback (vibrate) (Android styles), Hide notifications, Show fake iOS home bar
  • Thousands separator, Decimal sign in number, Decimal sign on keyboard — make it look exactly like the spectator expects.
  • Force the result + Forced number + Force after numbers entered (2–10) + Force key (Android: = or √) — after the spectator entered enough numbers, the result is your forced number.
  • TextBuffer save method: = (equals), long = (equals long press) (default), phone face down
  • Save result as: number, playing card or time; Pi Revelations, Suit order, Short card names
  • Action after result saved + Trigger action
  • Long press numbers → Set actions (Android styles) — an action for each digit key, on a long press.

Secret controls:

  • hold + for 2 s — the number on the display becomes the forced number, and forcing is ON (the display blinks),
  • hold − for 2 s — forcing OFF,
  • hold = — saves the result (with long =).

Actions: calculator value to Text Buffer, display forced number.

Exit: hold 0 or C / AC for 2 seconds.

The input screens (in short)

  • DICE SCREEN — the connected smart dice, large, on a black screen (settings in DICE INPUT: Routine START, Show dice values, Show peek screen, gestures). The values go into the Text Buffer with finalize dice values, dice total / ascending / descending to Text Buffer.
  • SWIPE INPUT — the clock-swipe screen: see The SWIPE method.
  • MORSE INPUT — tap = dot, swipe = dash; the finished text goes into the Text Buffer (Auto-complete when idle, Display on screen, Enable vibrations, Action after text finalized; 2-finger tap / swipe / long press). Exit: hold one finger for 2 s.
  • THUMBWRITER — you write letters secretly with your thumb on a black screen, and the app recognizes them (Swami / thumbwriter settings: drawing color and stroke, screen visibility, Finalize entry after, Recognize text after, gestures). Exit: two 2-finger swipes up or down.

Pocket and table

  • Phone motion control can start listening when one of these screens opens — e.g. turn the phone face down on the table after the calculator. See Remotes, volume buttons and phone motion.
  • Screen OFF when covered (OTHER SETTINGS) turns the screen off in your pocket, while the app keeps running.