Multitouch possible in theory?

[Guest lemmyc]

Hi all,

I'm considering getting a pulse as a cheap way to start developing for Android.

Does anyone know if the device might support multitouch if the OS was upgraded to Android 2?

Seems to be a lot of confusion about the screen tech on the Pulse.

Thanks.

[Guest Boony123]

if the G1 can do it im sure the pulse should be able to also. just a matter of "if" the pulse gets an android update any time soon.

[Guest joners]

if the G1 can do it im sure the pulse should be able to also. just a matter of "if" the pulse gets an android update any time soon.

It doesnt have anything to do with the Pulse needing an update. The g1 supported this on 1.5 (same version of android as the pulse has). However the code to support multi touch has to be implimented in pulse kernel. To do this we need the kernel source, which should be along in the next week or two.

[Guest Boony123]

It doesnt have anything to do with the Pulse needing an update. The g1 supported this on 1.5 (same version of android as the pulse has). However the code to support multi touch has to be implimented in pulse kernel. To do this we need the kernel source, which should be along in the next week or two.

i was think as in the hardware is capable of doing it. sorry if you miss understud. and i was just sayin update because in some android update they "should" be implamenting multi touch to the web bowser for zooming etc

[Guest steviem]

Are we all agreed that the Pulse has a capacitive screen? If it's resistive, multitouch won't work.

[Guest Paul]

It's definitely capacitive. Therefore theoretically it can do multitouch.

P

[Guest steviem]

Awesome! I was unsure when I read conflicting reviews, but when I tried using the screen at the T-Mobile store, I knew the screen was just about good enough to replace the iPhone.

[Guest lemmyc]

It's definitely capacitive. Therefore theoretically it can do multitouch.

P

Thanks Paul :)

[Guest dac_kufer]

any news about multitouch???

Edited December 18, 2009 by dac_kufer

[Guest blaze23]

any news about multitouch???

im aslo very interested to hear about any progress in getting multiouch on the pulse. its a real shame that huawei didnt impement it like motarola and htc...

[Guest iamdarren]

i really want to multi touch functionality, ive get envy of the palm pre and the htc hero with pinch zooming.

i hope it can get working soon.

[Guest AndAddict]

I'm going to see if I can gather some information on this, hopefully see how its implemented in the cyanogen mod and if I can add it to the pulse kernel.

Don't expect much soon, ;) I just got my pulse 2 days ago and I'm still playing around with the custom roms at the moment

Any help is much appreciated :)

Update: Ok, The driver multi-touch code is here: cyanogen GitHub

The drivers appear to be very similar, I will see if I can edit the code in to the pulse kernel.

Update 2:Most of the modifications look like they'll be simple drop in and compile, albeit with different filename's

Update 3: I copied the driver and input.c from the cyanogen, will compile and test, I think I may be missing something as i don't think it will be that simple

Edited December 28, 2009 by AndAddict

[Guest McSpoon]

I think the Pulse only uses synaptics_i2c_rmi_tm1319.c and cypress_cpt_i2c_ts.c

cypress_cpt_i2c_ts.c has an interesting feature, CONFIG_CYPRESS_TOUCHSCREEN_MULTIPOINT, but enabling it doesn't make any noticeable difference as far as I could tell.

Even if you successfully merge the cyanogen mod changes into synaptics_i2c_rmi_tm1319.c and it were to work, how would apps be able to use it? The 1.5 API doesn't have multitouch support. How did the HTC Hero do it? Did they use a hack?

[Guest AndAddict]

I think the Pulse only uses synaptics_i2c_rmi_tm1319.c and cypress_cpt_i2c_ts.c

cypress_cpt_i2c_ts.c has an interesting feature, CONFIG_CYPRESS_TOUCHSCREEN_MULTIPOINT, but enabling it doesn't make any noticeable difference as far as I could tell.

Even if you successfully merge the cyanogen mod changes into synaptics_i2c_rmi_tm1319.c and it were to work, how would apps be able to use it? The 1.5 API doesn't have multitouch support. How did the HTC Hero do it? Did they use a hack?

As far as I can tell, its just a modified driver and a modified input.c in cyanogen, that keeps passing it up till its available for the apps to use

The input.c and the input.h on the pulse seem to have many methods like that, at one point I found methods for gestures; there completely non-existent on the G1's vanilla kernel :)

[Guest AndAddict]

Putting this on hold for a few weeks, till I get a little more experience with the android kernel

[Guest John Hamelink]

Putting this on hold for a few weeks, till I get a little more experience with the android kernel

Fascinating! I will pay close attention to this thread :)

[Guest _Sebastian_]

Sorry for digging in old Topics ... but i just found a kernel config regarding multitouch for those who want to take a look it's in msm/include/linux/input.h

Within the menuconfig you might activate it via:

Device Drivers --> Input device support --> touch screen gesture suport (NEW)

A picuture of the menuconfig in the attachment

[Guest screwface]

phonemypc app works with multitouch on the pulse

[Guest John Hamelink]

phonemypc app works with multitouch on the pulse

Does that mean that multitouch is already enabled in the kernel?

[Guest _Sebastian_]

Does that mean that multitouch is already enabled in the kernel?

It's not enabled by default. Maybe somebody give it a try ....

Edited January 10, 2010 by _Sebastian_

[Guest John Hamelink]

It's not enabled by default. Maybe somebody give it a try ....

I would, but I don't have a pulse yet :) I can't wait to get one to be honest! On the topic of modifying the kernel, I've noticed there no videos of people with modded ROMs using the pulse on youtube (there are other handsets running modded pulse roms though), why is that? Is it difficult to make custom ROMs for the pulse, or is it just that nobody's uploaded a video yet?

[Guest Vince Scott]

I suspect that the only reason google haven't released multitouch in android is purely down to apple holding patents on the "technology" and i bet they aren't too willing to grant google a license to use it.

[Guest Samlock]

I suspect that the only reason google haven't released multitouch in android is purely down to apple holding patents on the "technology" and i bet they aren't too willing to grant google a license to use it.

But it exists on the Hero...? So Google have released Multitouch on Android, surely...

[Guest Bendolfc]

The Apple patents are only valid in the US AFAIK.

[Guest xangma]

Could anyone check out how we could maybe port this :

http://web.mit.edu/~luke_h/www/MultiTouchV...KernelPatch.zip

Into the Pulse?