Comments on: Multitouch patched into Android

By: secure wifi

secure wifi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:25:17 +0000

thanks for this im adding this blog to my twitter.

By: Lu

Lu — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:09:48 +0000

I don’t understand…Android multitouch wasn’t implemented for fear to apple patents in USA…
But There are a lot of contries where there aren’t software patents…And could be implemented google android multitouch in a contry without software patents…

By: sleeping with cyanide

sleeping with cyanide — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:02:53 +0000

does anyone know if this concept is possible using a trackpad on a windows-based laptop? zooming would be really helpful, as i do a lot of photoshopping in my spare time. thanks!

By: Stu

Stu — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:45:00 +0000

@dielectric

You mean a legal mind field in the same way that apple (I think it was them) tried to patent and exclusivise the mouse for themselves in the early 80s. Something which Mikrazoft fought for the right to utilise in their GUI interface back then too.
Sounds like Apple are trying the same trick here, I hope they lose.

By: Taylor Alexander

Taylor Alexander — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:30:37 +0000

@dielectric

The iphone can sense up to 5 (or four? i forget) individual touches at a time, not two. I used to have a piano program on it and 5 keys pressed at one time was the limit, then it just ignored me.

-Taylor

By: dielectric

dielectric — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:11:40 +0000

forgot to mention that all of this is a patent minefield. if you’re just screwing around and don’t intend to benefit commercially you might be OK, but this is some shaky ground for the poor android devs.

By: dielectric

dielectric — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:07:24 +0000

The iPhone does basically the same thing. Based on how the aspect ratio of the x/y rectangle changes over time, you can infer several gestures like pan and rotate, along with pinch/zoom. The big touchpads on iBooks do it, too. The fancy name is multitouch gesturing. For true multitouch with >2 finger tracking, you need a completely different hardware layout. So, while multi-finger tracking is cool and all, there’s a lot that can be done with just a two-finger tracking system.

By: Cyrozap

Cyrozap — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:31:53 +0000

savad is spamming.

By: Taylor Alexander

Taylor Alexander — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:54:47 +0000

@dan
It is capacitive, the driver for it just sucks.
-Taylor

By: dan

dan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:25:11 +0000

It’s quite an elegant way of making the most of a bad situation. i’m sure at least some subsequent android phones will use capacitive touchscreens, though..

By: tony

tony — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:30:10 +0000

It is a good start, and made more eloquent by the fact that the driver can be replaced, with no ill effects to current apps. I think I’m going to can verizon in june and go with T-mobile for a g1.

By: Cannonball Jones

Cannonball Jones — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:14:16 +0000

It’s not useless, it’s at least a start. I’m getting closer and closer to picking up a G1 every day now..

By: ondr?

ondr? — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:09:19 +0000

pretty much useless, if all it does is giving us a radius.

so that’s zooming…how about rotation then :( ?

By: supernova_hq

supernova_hq — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:30:38 +0000

Does anyone know of a way to do a similar thing in linux on a laptop? I have a synaptics touchpad on my laptop and run Ubuntu.

By: eric

eric — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:12:32 +0000

Sounds like a software fix to a hardware problem.
Very Nice!