Multitouch possible in theory?

[Guest helikopter]

As far as i know there are two "parts" of software.

The first part is the firmware of the µC. It handles the memory mapping, interrupts...

The second part is the driver. It receives the data from the µC and processes them.

So unless we dump the firmware from one of the µC's we won't see how the memory mapping etc. works ;)

Also its comlicated to modifiy the firmware of the µC. I guess even impossible because they may have read-only

memory that also has a read-protection. So we can just search for #defines like CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_GESTRUE=y

I think the controller is able to handle multitouch. Its a smartphone, and not a standard mobile phone...

Greetings,

BigBear

hey, guys! do you know the app called "phonemypc"? it's available from the market, here's the developer's page:

http://softwareforme.com/phonemypc/setupapc.html

i don't know how but it's definitely capable of register two touches at the same time as you're able to have pinch-and-zoom with it. can you take a look at it and find out how it works? it costs a few bucks but you can try for free if you uninstall and ask for a refund in 24 hours.

[Guest david_dawkins]

[...] but it's definitely capable of register two touches at the same time as you're able to have pinch-and-zoom with it. [...]

Well, so does the Dolphin browser, but not on a Pulse (yet). The BigBear's on the case.

[Guest helikopter]

Well, so does the Dolphin browser, but not on a Pulse (yet). The BigBear's on the case.

i think you misunderstood me. the pinch-and-zoom function in phonemypc does work. i just tried it a few minutes ago.

i know that a lot of other apps have this ability but as far as i know phonemypc is the only one that has it working on the polaris.

[Guest BigBearMDC]

HTC Polaris ;)

Sorry, but we're talking about the T-Mobile Pulse, not Polaris.

Also, the Pulse is from Huawei, not from HTC.

Thanks anyway

Edit:

Okay I installed it.

But i can't test it because it keeps telling me "no servers found try later"...

Edited February 12, 2010 by BigBearMDC

[Guest helikopter]

HTC Polaris ;)

Sorry, but we're talking about the T-Mobile Pulse, not Polaris.

Also, the Pulse is from Huawei, not from HTC.

Thanks anyway

Edit:

Okay I installed it.

But i can't test it because it keeps telling me "no servers found try later"...

oh, my god. :D of course i talk about the pulse. the htc polaris was my previous phone. i loved it but the two are not comparable. :(

you have to install a client onto your pc to have it working. it's downloadable from their website that i linked a few posts earlier.

[Guest BigBearMDC]

Oh, okay cool!

That means the Pulse has multitouch. Or at least supports it.

Yap I installed the client but it still doesn't work :D

I'd really like to see it on my own ;)

Greetings,

BigBear

[Guest helikopter]

Oh, okay cool!

That means the Pulse has multitouch. Or at least supports it.

Yap I installed the client but it still doesn't work :D

I'd really like to see it on my own ;)

Greetings,

BigBear

do you run the client on your pc? you can check if it starts automatically or you have to do that manually.

[Guest BigBearMDC]

Yap the client runs.

But it keeps telling me "Could not connect to the SoftwareForMe servers. Try again later".

Greetings,

BigBear

[Guest helikopter]

Yap the client runs.

But it keeps telling me "Could not connect to the SoftwareForMe servers. Try again later".

Greetings,

BigBear

i tried it a minute ago and it works for me. grrrr. i really want someone to confirm it for me. ;)

in a hungarian pulse forum a lot of people wrote that it works for them so i'm quite sure that it will for you, too.

[Guest BigBearMDC]

Yaeh i hope so ;)

[Guest Spooke]

Ive just tried it now, Phonemypc has the multitouch although its not very fluid, Ive tried with a USB Plugged in, still is abit clunky, but hey it works :/

[Guest xangma]

Ive just tried it now, Phonemypc has the multitouch although its not very fluid, Ive tried with a USB Plugged in, still is abit clunky, but hey it works :/

Le what? Explain? =]

[Guest McSpoon]

It's interesting. Their technique will work on any Android device - even if it doesn't doesn't truly support multi-touch. There is a thread on the Android-developers group where they describe how they implemented it. It uses the 'size and 'pressure' properties of a single finger touch event.

http://groups.google.com/group/android-dev...144463625162b84

It isn't elegant but it sounds like it kinda works. Any application could implement it.

[Guest Josh04]

My laptop touchpad can do that ;)

[Guest BigBearMDC]

Ok that means thats no multitouch.

The only thing we can do with this is say how big the distance between the two fingers is, but not more ;)

Lets hope I get an answer from Synaptics!

Greetings,

BigBear

[Guest meinnit]

I don't see what the excitement over multi touch is all about!

[Guest BigBearMDC]

I don't see what the excitement over multi touch is all about!

Well, pinch zoom, games etc...

Especially games aren't really playable without multitouch

[Guest helikopter]

It's interesting. Their technique will work on any Android device - even if it doesn't doesn't truly support multi-touch. There is a thread on the Android-developers group where they describe how they implemented it. It uses the 'size and 'pressure' properties of a single finger touch event.

http://groups.google.com/group/android-dev...144463625162b84

It isn't elegant but it sounds like it kinda works. Any application could implement it.

;) it's not the real deal then.

[Guest david_dawkins]

It's interesting. Their technique will work on any Android device - even if it doesn't doesn't truly support multi-touch. There is a thread on the Android-developers group where they describe how they implemented it. It uses the 'size and 'pressure' properties of a single finger touch event.

http://groups.google.com/group/android-dev...144463625162b84

It isn't elegant but it sounds like it kinda works. Any application could implement it.

Now *that* is super-neat.

I don't understand why the "android framework engineer" gets so arsey about it.

It doesn't help us get apps like Dolphin working, unless we fake the events using the same technique inside the kernel drivers.

[Guest meinnit]

Well, pinch zoom, games etc...

Especially games aren't really playable without multitouch

Will it help improve keyboard input? Sometimes I try to type too fast and it doesn't recognise my key strokes....I guess its because I'm pressing 2 keys at once.

Edited February 12, 2010 by meinnit

[Guest david_dawkins]

Will it help improve keyboard input? Sometimes I try to type too fast and it doesn't recognise my key strokes....I guess its because I'm pressing 2 keys at once.

*cough* ShapeWriter *cough*

[Guest meinnit]

*cough* ShapeWriter *cough*

Didn't really get on with that

[Guest david_dawkins]

Didn't really get on with that

I really think I'm the only one who does - everyone else loves Sw*pe - but I think I can type quicker than I could on my blackberry now. Of course, it could be the beer talking.

[Guest McSpoon]

I don't understand why the "android framework engineer" gets so arsey about it.

It doesn't help us get apps like Dolphin working, unless we fake the events using the same technique inside the kernel drivers.

Yeah, Dianne clearly gets irritated by those types of hacks :D but, in some ways, it's good to see it goes totally against all of the principals of the Android devs team.

Maybe the Dolphin developers would be willing to implement the PhoneMyPC hack too. (I suspect they're exploiting the Luke Hutch MT hack if they've got multi-touch on Android 1.5. Remember it doesn't have any capability for multi-touch so they're obviously expecting a hack to pass the data through the framework (most likely by hiding it within the 'size' property).

[Guest BigBearMDC]

Hi guys.

I'm no having a closer look at the synaptics_i2c_rmi_tm1167.c.

Well, we get 16 bytes of date.

look at line 86:

	uint8_t buf[15];

and we also read 16 bytes of data. Then at line 205:

if (finger2_pressed) {

		input_report_abs(ts->input_dev, ABS_HAT0X, pos[1][0]);

	input_report_abs(ts->input_dev, ABS_HAT0Y, pos[1][1]);

}[/code]




That seems to be the same procedure as it is on the G1.

It aslo reports ABS_HAT0X and ABS_HAT0Y.



But in the file synaptics_i2c_rmi_tm1319.c buf[] is only 8 bytes large.

line 76:

[code]	uint8_t buf[8];

In synaptics_ts_work_func() theres is also no definition of a second finger or its coordinates. the main difference between the synaptics_ts_work_func() in the two drivers is here i guess:

for (i = 0; i < ((ts->use_irq && !bad_data) ? 1 : 10); i++) {

		ret = i2c_transfer(ts->client->adapter, msg, 2);[/code]


Thats the definition in the driver that supports 2 fingers and 2 coordinates.



But in the other driver:

[code]for (i = 0; i < ((ts->use_irq && !bad_data) ? 1 : 3); i++) { 	

	ret = i2c_transfer(ts->client->adapter, msg, 2);

Look at this difference:

 i < ((ts->use_irq && !bad_data) ? 1 : 10)

to

 i < ((ts->use_irq && !bad_data) ? 1 : 3)

Seems like were not reading all the data that we can get from the touchscreen.

Maybe thats the point. There might be information about a second touch, but it

gets dropped. Maybe thats a point to start from.

What might happen if we change this?

As Huawei gives us two drivers, one with multitouch support and one without, both should work as both are for the same phone.

Greetings,

BigBear

Edited February 13, 2010 by BigBearMDC