Multitouch Alternatives to 3m

[NGNEER]

I noticed that Bob said that the only option for a multitouch screen is the 3m but since his post I noticd that other companies have released their versions of this technology. I was wondering if some of the less expensive multitouch screens will work or would they require different coding.

[TotalSonic]

I noticed that Bob said that the only option for a multitouch screen is the 3m but since his post I noticd that other companies have released their versions of this technology. I was wondering if some of the less expensive multitouch screens will work or would they require different coding.

Unfortunately (afaik) each multitouch screen will require coding of a new template by Bob.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Bob L]

Since there is not even a Win 7 standard set for true multitouch operation... each screen will require me to code special low level drivers for the true multitouch... of course any touch screen will work as a mouse replacement one fader at a time.

Bob L

[sstillwell]

Actually, you can...it's Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 and up only, but see the following article

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee336016.aspx

And check the section on "Working with Windows Raw Touch Messages". You start by receiving a WM_TOUCH message and unpacking it into an array of TOUCHINPUT structures that you will then continue to monitor for state (TOUCHEVENTF_DOWN, TOUCHEVENTF_UP) and activity (TOUCHEVENTF_MOVE).

Finally, per the article:

"In order to start receiving raw touch messages, WM_TOUCH, first you need to ask the OS to start sending touch messages to your application and stop sending the default gesture messages. To do so, you need to call the RegisterTouchWindow(HWND hWnd, ULONG uFlags) function. Calling this function registers a single hWnd element (usually a window) as being touch-enabled."

Which seems to mean that you can either use the stock multi-touch gestures or you can handle true multitouch (and the gestures if you recognize them and process them yourself), but you can't do both at the same time.

Hope that helps...

Scott

[Bob L]

Well... its about time... this must be brand new... because it was not available earlier this year when I did the 3M stuff... at least they didn't even know about it.

I'll look into it further.

Bob L

[sstillwell]

Heh...it's BEEN there since the RCs of Windows 7, but yeah, the articles are just NOW coming out (October '10 issue of MSDN Magazine, and another mention buried back in the March issue). Not sure where the docs have been buried before now.

If you don't subscribe to MSDN magazine, you should...lots of hardcore API stuff in there, although the focus seems to be primarily on business apps (which is obviously a primary revenue driver for Microsoft...)

I get it for free as a Certified blahblah working for a Gold partner, but I'm pretty sure it's available even outside that.

Scott