Suggestion: Turn the Smartphone into the Mouse

[EdFrmBrighthand]

I just had an idea, and the more I think about it the better I like it.

When I'm using my Redfly, I always have my smartphone and an external mouse hooked up by USB. It occurs to me that Celio could combine these two.

There are applications that can make a phone act like an optical mouse. They use the built-in camera to detect when the phone is being moved around.

If this function was built into the Redly driver, I'd no longer have to carry a travel mouse around with me.

So, what do you guys think?
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[btate0121]

I love it... and i hate it...

while the idea of having my device BE my mouse... ultimate geek collar popping right there. NICE idea....

HOWEVER

I cringe at the idea of dragging my $500 device across my desk/table top... *shudder* *cringe*.

NICE idea if there were a way to do it without ruining the device!

EDIT: Just had an idea... how about finger swiping over the camera instead of dragging the phone? sure.. it does the same thing as the trackpad that way.. but i'd almost certainly prefer that over the trackpad. *shrug*

 

[Ebag333]

Why can't you use the touch screen as a touch pad?

It wouldn't be perfect for some devices (like the 700wx/800w with the square screen), but any rectangular screens would be perfect.

Just make it so that the mouse is always at the center of the screen when you're not touching, so you can move in any direction. Square screens would take two swipes to get from one side of the Redfly to the other, but that'd be about it.

Making the camera an optical mouse certainly sounds cool, but I'd think that'd be technically difficult and use up a lot of CPU (spend lots of cycles comparing the two pictures). Plus resolution is very poor that close to the desk (not to mention how dark it'd be).

 

[btate0121]

i like the screen idea!

 

[badersk]

i like the screen idea!

Me too!

 

[je255j#WP]

The only problem with using the phone as a mouse, whether it be via the screen or the camera, is that this requires the phone to be turned on (as in, more so). Right now, the phone is using minimal power, and not only that, but drawing power from the RedFly to charge. The idea of using that power for anything other than recharging seems like a bit of a waste.

 

[Ebag333]

The only problem with using the phone as a mouse, whether it be via the screen or the camera, is that this requires the phone to be turned on (as in, more so). Right now, the phone is using minimal power, and not only that, but drawing power from the RedFly to charge. The idea of using that power for anything other than recharging seems like a bit of a waste.

Would be a simple matter to have an option to turn this on/off.

Additionally it's not the LCD that draws much power, it's the back lighting. There's no need for the back lighting to be on, or even for the LCD to display an image. If it's possible (no idea) Celio could set it up so that the touch part works without displaying anything (or having the back light on).

This would be only a very very small additional power drain.

 

[wodin]

Most phones have the camera on the back, and wouldn't be required to drag the screen across the desk to use the camera as an optical mouse. BUT!!! With the camera flat on the desk there is no light source. Even with phones that have flash and anti red-eye, the lens needs to be far enough away from the surface for the light to shine on it.

It’s a GREAT idea, but I’m afraid it won’t work. Now, phones that have accelerometers might be a different story!

 

[EdFrmBrighthand]

i like the screen idea!

Me too... if it will work with a finger. I don't think it would be worth it if I had to use a stylus. And this might vary from device to device.
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[EdFrmBrighthand]

Now, phones that have accelerometers might be a different story!

Not that I've had a couple of devices with accelerometers, I'm less enamored with them than I used to be.

Did you ever watch Quantum Leap on TV? Al had this handheld gizmo that he was always hitting to get it to work right. I'm convinced that his gadget had a screen controlled by an accelerometer. Once or twice a day my Touch will rotate the screen for no reason I can detect, and I end up whacking it just like Al used to do to get it to straighten out.

I'm not sure an accelerometer is up to the job of being a mouse control.
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[Ebag333]

Why can't you use the touch screen as a touch pad?

Okay, am I just good at guessing, or is Celio preparing to roll something out?

I spilled a couple drops of some OJ on my screen (fortunatly no harm done). Anyway, while I was wiping it up, I noticed that text on my screen was getting highlighted.

Now I'm 100% sure that when I first got my Redfly it did not do that. That was one of the first things I tested.

Does anyone else experience the same thing?

 

[Ebag333]

Why can't you use the touch screen as a touch pad?

Okay, am I going crazy here or......


I was wiping off the screen on my 800w (which doesn't have the very newest released driver yet), and noticed that the text on my screen was getting highlighted! (As if I was clicking and dragging.)

I'm 99.9% sure that this did not happen when I tested it with one of the early drivers (when I got my beta unit).

Anyone else experiencing this?







And how's this for weird. I posted this up already once before, but when I came back to the forum noticed that my post was gone....?

And even stranger, at the bottom of my post:

Last edited by Bla1ze : 11/17/2008 at 06:05 PM.

(Of course that might be gone now that I edited my post.....)

 

[EdFrmBrighthand]

No offence intended, but could you start your own topic with this? It really doesn't have anything to do with the suggestion of using the smartphone connected to the Redfly as a mouse or trackpad.
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[Ebag333]

No offence intended, but could you start your own topic with this? It really doesn't have anything to do with the suggestion of using the smartphone connected to the Redfly as a mouse or trackpad.

Maybe we're using different terminology here, but isn't a trackpad and touchpad the same thing?

A touchpad (also trackpad) is a pointing device consisting of specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on screen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackpad


If what I'm experiencing is intentional (and not a bug), then my 800w's screen can be used as a touchpad (trackpad). (Of sorts.....)

 

[EdFrmBrighthand]

I'm sorry, I have to learn not to make posts too early in the morning. You're absolutely correct, and please ignore what I said before.

Sounds to me like the Redfly driver isn't turning off the touchscreen. This isn't something I've experimented with, but I'll give it a try.
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[laurieny]

Our design intent is to always turn off the touchpad when you connect to the REDFLY (though Ed's idea is an interesting concept!), but admittedly there are some phones that we have not been able to achieve that with and they will still "respond" when you touch them.

Even though in theory the phones we support currently all have the same operating system (albeit 2 "generations" with 5 and 6x), because the OEMs and the carriers all work hard to differentiate their offering it makes what we do very difficult to achieve across the board. It really reminds me of the old days when a driver or application developer had to test their product on multiple PCs with multiple video cards, worry about different BIOSs, and be very careful with every bit of memory and disk space.

But if it was easy, anybody could do it, so we aren't complaining!

-Laurie

 

[Ebag333]

I'm sorry, I have to learn not to make posts too early in the morning. You're absolutely correct, and please ignore what I said before.

Sounds to me like the Redfly driver isn't turning off the touchscreen. This isn't something I've experimented with, but I'll give it a try.
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Hey, no harm no foul.

(Just you know that I'm going to have something to razz you about now, right? )

Our design intent is to always turn off the touchpad when you connect to the REDFLY (though Ed's idea is an interesting concept!), but admittedly there are some phones that we have not been able to achieve that with and they will still "respond" when you touch them.

Even though in theory the phones we support currently all have the same operating system (albeit 2 "generations" with 5 and 6x), because the OEMs and the carriers all work hard to differentiate their offering it makes what we do very difficult to achieve across the board. It really reminds me of the old days when a driver or application developer had to test their product on multiple PCs with multiple video cards, worry about different BIOSs, and be very careful with every bit of memory and disk space.

But if it was easy, anybody could do it, so we aren't complaining!

-Laurie

Laurie,

It would be difficult to do as it'd require a lot of work, but if you could make the screen into a touchpad...well....lets just say that'd be killer.

My only problem(s) with using it the way it is now is:

1) I don't see the mouse moving when I use the screen as a touchpad
2) When I do that it's like I have the mouse1 button held down all the time.

If you could leave the touchscreen on (just turn off the LCD) and make the screen work just like the touchpad in the device now, then that would be absolutely slick. I'm not a huge fan of touchpads, but part of that is my complaint that they are nearly always too small (the Redfly's is nearly wide enough, but not nearly tall enough). Especially for those folks with sliders, they'd have an absolutely huge touchpad at their fingertips (pardon the pun! ).