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Idea #22050: Multitouch and gestures on touchpads

Written by evefavretto the 25 Oct 09 at 21:00. Category: Hardware support. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
After I used the Karmic beta, I liked the two-fingers scrolling and I'm still thinking if it can be implemented another gestures, as in MacBooks and some other net/notebooks...
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Solution #1: Implement gestures on notebooks' touchpads
Written by evefavretto the 25 Oct 09 at 21:00.
It's a simple idea, implement gestures on these touchpads. I know that can be hard to implement, I'm only suggesting.
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Solution #2: Gesture creation program
Written by MarineMan215 the 26 Oct 09 at 03:35.
Create a program to create custom gestures for anything!
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Solution #3: Unlock computer with mouse gesture on touchpad
Written by HigH5 the 26 Oct 09 at 11:28.
One could instead unlocking the computer with their password unlock it with a secret mouse gesture.
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Solution #4: two fingers tap for RIGHT CLICK
Written by Lex the 30 Oct 09 at 18:56.
Left button click is already simulate by tapping, so I want to propose something similar for RIGHT button as well.

two finger tapping - right button click

I think that this could be very simple and effective way. (We can possibly take this to extend and use 3 finger tap for middle button, but I'm not sure about it...)
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Solution #5: Allow two-finger gestures with edge scrolling
Written by robertjlee the 30 Oct 09 at 22:12.
The two-finger scrolling feature is good, but when turned on, horizontal and vertical scrolling with the edge of the touchpad stops working. It should be possible to use either option with the same settings.
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Solution #6: Make a New Ubuntu Distro' With 10/GUI in Mind
Written by Penguin Guy the 4 Nov 09 at 19:07.
Start moving towards the 10/GUI idea, perhaps create a new Ubuntu version that is designed with touchpads in mind (see concept video). The new distribution should still have basic support mice, but should work on simplifying the desktop using multi-touch technology at the same time.

10/GUI
Concept Video
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Solution #7: Use these Perl programs as a daemon
Written by Magnesium the 17 Jan 10 at 21:17.
Nathan Harrington, an IBM developer, has written some Perl programs to detect multi-finger swipe and pinch gestures on Synaptics Touchpads (the only type with a good enough driver to do something like this) at

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-touchpad/index.html

These could be run as a daemon to perform actions when gestures are detected. Also, instead of the SendKeys Perl command, one could use xdotool ( http://www.semicomplete.com/projects/xdotool/xdotool ) and put system("xdotool whatever") in the perl script (this would give you more flexibility than SendKeys, for example mouse clicks/movement).

Mg

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Shady3D wrote on the 26 Oct 09 at 05:50
there is an application for gesture creation. it takes the gesture then the command you want to run.

rakudave wrote on the 26 Oct 09 at 09:52
yes, it's called "easystroke".
However, it does not work with multiple fingers, only with modifier keys, i.e. with a normal mouse.
I know that this might not be easy, since normal touchpads do not support multiple fingers, but only indicate how many fingers were used and a single coordinate.
There is a script by IBM that uses this technique.

matthewp wrote on the 31 Oct 09 at 19:25
Solution 5 has its own idea here:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/21653/

Calixte wrote on the 3 Nov 09 at 09:57
Solution 4 already exists (3 finger tap is right click, 2 finger is middle)
At least on my old Asus EeePC 901 with jaunty

I don't have multitouch with my new bow, so I can't say

Dazed_75 wrote on the 16 Nov 09 at 17:28
Whatever else is done to support touchpads and gestures, PLEASE provide a way to turn the touchpad completely OFF.

I love that my HP provides a hardware switch to do so but on other machines I am tempted to open the case and actually disconnect the blasted thing.

VDSA wrote on the 17 Nov 09 at 06:15
As calixte mentioned, the eee pc's have always had multitouch (or @ least since the first 9xx's). On my 901, it worked perfectly on windows xp. In ubuntu, it is unnatural. Two finger scrolling, two finger right click and three finger middle click are confusing and hard to implement. The worst problem is in firefox. I can scroll down a page and when i release my fingers, almost inevitably i accidentally right click

One finger should be left
two should be middle/scroll
three should be right

or an optional set up for users

evefavretto wrote on the 8 Dec 09 at 00:23
10/GUI is really a good idea, but I think that it is a separated idea, notebook's touchpads are small to 10/GUI.


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