Imac display dims. can brighten in system preferences or with keyboard, but then randomly dims again

We have an iMac where I work that was purchased this last summer (2012).  We bought a bunch, but this is the only one that has this issue.  The main user of the computer says that the screen randomly dims while he is using it.  It won't dim is he is actively typing, but if he takes his hands away for a moment the screen dims.  He pushes the brighten key on his keyboard, an the screen goes back to normal.  But it happens again moments later.
I already tried SMC and PRAM resets.  I unchecked anything obvious in the energy saver preferences on his profile.  It really didn't seem like a hardware issue to me, but I'm running out of ideas.  Any thoughts?

I have been having this same problem as well for a couple months now on a 27" 2010 iMac.
After being in use for about 30 minutes, there is a couple of quick screen flashes and you can see the screen is now dimmed quite a bit. I don't have the auto dim thing turn on. Never did.
Bringing up the brightness just brings up the dimming, but it does not clear the screen back to the high contrast state.
Then after a few minutes, it just resets itself back to normal, only to do it again within an hour or two.
Pretty random actually.
Is this thing dying on me? I don't have apple don't care. Do I need to pay to have this fixed?
Any ideas what could be going on?

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