<br>Answering myself once more...<br> It seems that several existing applications are using multitouch events using the TUIO protocol (<a href="http://www.iua.upf.es/mtg/reacTable/pdfs/GW2005-KaltenBoverBencinaConstanza.pdf">http://www.iua.upf.es/mtg/reacTable/pdfs/GW2005-KaltenBoverBencinaConstanza.pdf</a>) <br>
<br>Also, it seems that no X support will be available, so I guess supporting TUIO is the best choice. <br>I guess Trolltech has already a general development plan for 4.5, and I'm sure some Trolltech's developers are in this list (Thiago?) , is multitouch support in the list?<br>
<br>And my prior questions still apply, mainly summarized "if I work to make KDE multitouch aware, it will be welcomed even if it will imply more code in kdelibs and a right now limited audience ( although expected to grow to millions at least in mobile platforms in next years)"<br>
My first idea of merging that with KActions + send events to Apps is a feasible good design?<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 10:28 PM, Jordi Polo <<a href="mailto:mumismo@gmail.com">mumismo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>I was wrong saying that there exist an X server implementation with multitouch, what there exist is a multi-pointer, multi-keyboard Xserver. <br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 4:18 PM, Jordi Polo <<a href="mailto:mumismo@gmail.com" target="_blank">mumismo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>Hi,<br>I have the chance to get involve in some Human interface projects but want to make then as general as possible.<br>
<br>== WHY ==<br>First there exist a library that let create cheap multi touch panels (<a href="http://www.whitenoiseaudio.com/touchlib/" target="_blank">http://www.whitenoiseaudio.com/touchlib/</a>), they use computer vision, so a lot of computing is needed and some tuning. Alternatively there are some multitouch, multifinger support for the Wiimote (<a href="http://www.wiimoteproject.com/" target="_blank">http://www.wiimoteproject.com/</a>). <br>
These projects use specialized libraries and are quite geek/research like. <br>On the other hand, we have the new Mac Air /Mac book pro with their basic multitouch gestures support. <br>And the thing that made think about all this: <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/19/apple_filing_spills_details_of_advanced_multi_touch_pads_for_macs.html" target="_blank">http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/19/apple_filing_spills_details_of_advanced_multi_touch_pads_for_macs.html</a><br>
<br>Even the above article is about a patent and it doesn't mean it will materialize in a product, I'd say that the next Mac whatever laptops will come with a bigger trackpad with extended gestures support. <br>If they don't, with cheap (only one wiimote is needed) multitouch displays available, it can be really cool if Linux/KDE leads the way on interfaces innovation. <br>
<br>I think the above Apple's ideas are pretty clever, use multitouch to define usual GUI operations like copy or paste. Meaning no revolution is needed on the UI and applications should not be wildly reworked. Also means that multitouch hardware can be little by little more common place till the point that we can change the UI to be more specifically multitouch (the zoom idea is the first obvious thing). <br>
<br>
I hope you agree with me in the convenience of multitouch support. I
guess this can be easily flamed as not everyone will like the
multitouch paradigm, also accesibility concerns can easily argued.
That's why it should be done gradually, trying to make it configurable,
etc. I hope that it can be seen at least as interesting to be explored. <br clear="all"><br>== HOW ==<br>As I said, today multitouch programs are done with multitouch specific libraries and tent to be fancy 3D stuff. I will like to include the multitouch support in KDE in a way it can be easily used by normal applications. In fact the support should not be limited to KDE.<br>
Current Xorg has no multitouch support. It does exist a X implementation that supports it and I read somewhere that someone was working on multitouch Xorg but not sure about progress. <br>From my point of view, the perfect implementation would be a low level library/ Xorg taking care of creating basic events from the multitouch hardware (much like mouse or keyboard). <br>
Those will be converted to new types of QEvents, maybe Trolltech is even thinking about adding multitouch support in 4.5 for Mac platform (very wild guess). <br>Since this point I am not sure what should be the best implementation. <br>
In my ignorance of KDE internals I would suggest adding multitouch handling to KActions, so the applications will not need to be changed. To put an example, KMyWhateverApp will add a KAction copy action that is activated with Ctrl+c and with the gesture two_fingers_up. <br>
Gestures to show Plasma dashboard, launch krunner, etc can be managed as current global shortcuts are managed. <br>Applications will of course receive multitouch QEvents (those not filtered by KActions I guess), modifying the apps to use the events in fancier ways is a problem of every app developers. <br>
<br>==THE QUESTIONS==<br>As I said I want to make the whole multitouch stuff useful for OSS in general instead of the "make a cool looking project" that I have being offered. So for me the important point is if this kind of work is really seen as useful and integrable in KDE or no. I am sorry for the hand waving but I will not even start the project if it is not going to help a bigger audience than my 2 reseach fellows... So:<br>
¿What problems do you see to the general high level implementation ideas above?<br>¿Do these ideas have a place in KDE?<br>¿If multitouch hardware is not massively available (let's say some macs and maniac wiimote users only) it has the chance to be added to KDE?<br>
¿If the only way to get multitouch information is a non- Xorg related library, it is implementable?<br>¿If that library is not widely deploiyed, it is ok to include code in kdelibs that use it?<br><font color="#888888"><br>
-- <br>Jordi Polo Carres<br>
NLP laboratory - NAIST<br><a href="http://www.bahasara.org" target="_blank">http://www.bahasara.org</a><br>
</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jordi Polo Carres<br>NLP laboratory - NAIST<br><a href="http://www.bahasara.org" target="_blank">http://www.bahasara.org</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jordi Polo Carres<br>NLP laboratory - NAIST<br><a href="http://www.bahasara.org">http://www.bahasara.org</a><br>