TouchMe Gesture Control Studio - Configure your own finger swipe gestures

[ybahman]

Why not start with a front page right here http://www.surfaceforums.net/index.php ?

Ask commander-in-chief, dgstorm, for permission to lead with the software. Get your videos out there! Create a contest and give away 20 or so licenses during the remainder of April when users reply to the post.

For example: CrackBerry Contest

Would your software be able to port over to RT or Windows Phone? If so and your're working on that, you may consider some of the mobile sites: WPCentral, etc.

Wow! This is such a creative idea, I love it! I just sent dgstorm a PM, so hopefully he gets back to me and we can get this show on the road =]


About the WinRT and Windows Phone versions... unfortunately, it's not possible. Trust me, if I could I would; I have an original Surface RT. But for security reasons, all code that runs on those devices must be signed by Microsoft -> Microsoft only signs 3rd party code if it's distributed through the Store -> they won't allow apps in the Store if they use desktop APIs ->desktop APIs are required for the TouchMe Engine to access the touchscreen driver and control other apps. So there's nothing I can do. Maybe if they were jail broken I could compile an ARM version! But that hasn't happened yet... =]

Even still, WPCentral would be awesome since they pretty much report on all Microsoft-related news. Actually, I originally reached out to them about 3-4 months ago when TouchMe was still in an early beta stage. They seemed interested at the time, but haven't responded to me since then *shakes fist*

 

[ybahman]

My suggestion would be to find some tech bloggers specializing in Windows 8 and offer them the app for free, hopefully some of them will bite. Actually you only need one that bites, then the rest will follow.

This is a great idea! Actually, I'd love to get some tech blog coverage. I've actually spent quite a few nights shameless plugging it to as many sites as I could find! But I definitely haven't covered all of them. Do you have a couple in mind that I should try out?

 

[Tsurugaya]

The obvious choices are Paul Thurrot and Walt Mossberg, but I doubt you would get in there. They hardly do stories on apps, but once in a while they like to show off a "hidden gem", so perhaps provide them with a free app and let them sit on it for a week or so, in order to see if they react.
If not, you can move on to others, like for example Quentin Moore, Mark Kaelin, Thomas R. Parkison, Hongkiat.com, James Croft, techoneglobal.com and of course AnandTech.
The trick is to get one of the big ones to take the bait and you\ll get all the benefits of Reaganomics' Trickle down effect.

 

[Nismode]

Anyone have any issues using Chrome with this software? For some reason my mouse control to click elements (tabs, text fields, buttons, links, etc) acted weird with the trackpad or external mouse, but via touch was fine. Can't get it to reproduce however.

 

[Nismode]

Just got it to reproduce:

Using the 2 finger tip tap left or right in Chrome to switch tabs, the mouse cursor seems stuck in that Chrome window, and I can't click any element of the window with the cursor using the trackpad or mouse. I can use touch elements however.

If I go to another Chrome window, clicks with the mouse or trackpad will work however. Very frustrating

 

[ybahman]

Just got it to reproduce:

Using the 2 finger tip tap left or right in Chrome to switch tabs, the mouse cursor seems stuck in that Chrome window, and I can't click any element of the window with the cursor using the trackpad or mouse. I can use touch elements however.

If I go to another Chrome window, clicks with the mouse or trackpad will work however. Very frustrating

After investigating, it looks like there’s actually nothing I can do to solve this because it has nothing to do with the TouchMe engine. Here’s how you can tell:

1. Completely turn off the TouchMe Engine
2. Open Chrome
3. Touch one finger to the Chrome window and HOLD IT THERE
4. While holding your finger on the Chrome window, press “Ctrl+T” (or any keyboard shortcut that causes you to switch tabs)
5. You can remove your finger at this time
6. Notice that now all mouse input ceases to work


If anyone knows how to report a bug to the Chrome team, I think that’d be the best option. Since this only seems to be a problem with the recent update.

 

[Dim-Ize]

Just got it to reproduce:

Using the 2 finger tip tap left or right in Chrome to switch tabs, the mouse cursor seems stuck in that Chrome window, and I can't click any element of the window with the cursor using the trackpad or mouse. I can use touch elements however.

If I go to another Chrome window, clicks with the mouse or trackpad will work however. Very frustrating

Understood. That is why I changed the settings as Chrome works pretty well with touch browser native.

 

[ybahman]

Understood. That is why I changed the settings as Chrome works pretty well with touch browser native.

Which settings did you change?

 

[Dim-Ize]

Which settings did you change?

Sorry. My response was indeed a bit vague. I meant that I changed some of the gestures (post #60). I don't find the need for browser gestures in Chrome as the latest version is rather friendly with touch based use.

When using my SP2 as a tablet only, in Chrome:
- Touch URL and virtual keyboard pops up automatically
- Touch (and hold) with one finger in browser window and you get "back, forward, reload, print" automatically
- Navigating Tabs is easy to press with one finger

There are settings in Chrome for Touch that can be enabled / disabled by entering chrome://flags in the address bar.

By using Chrome as my default browser (because IE11 and 8.1 don't work for WebEx yet and I'm constantly in and out of meetings) I find this to be most useful. Use Chrome's intuitive, native gestures while using TouchMe gestures throughout the rest of my tablet only experience.

 

[Dim-Ize]

@ybahman - it seems that TouchMe is creating a log.txt at boot and each time that TouchMe Engine is started. It is appearing in C:\Users\<mysurface>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.

I will uninstall and reinstall TouchMe engine as it is no longer auto loading at boot. Any way to hide that file so it doesn't show up in my start menu?

 

[dRuEFFECT]

After investigating, it looks like there’s actually nothing I can do to solve this because it has nothing to do with the TouchMe engine. Here’s how you can tell:

1. Completely turn off the TouchMe Engine
2. Open Chrome
3. Touch one finger to the Chrome window and HOLD IT THERE
4. While holding your finger on the Chrome window, press “Ctrl+T” (or any keyboard shortcut that causes you to switch tabs)
5. You can remove your finger at this time
6. Notice that now all mouse input ceases to work


If anyone knows how to report a bug to the Chrome team, I think that’d be the best option. Since this only seems to be a problem with the recent update.

I know with Chrome Canary, doing a 2 finger "tip-tap" works natively, pretty much exactly like TouchMe. Sounds like with both TouchMe and Chrome responding the same way to a tip-tap, TouchMe might be sending the control command while Chrome itself is also switching tabs, causing this problem.

You can probably disable this feature in chrome://flags but personally I disabled TouchMe's version of 2 finger tip-tap and use Chrome's exclusively. Chrome Canary also now supports an iPad-like gesture navigation by horizontal overscroll. Very slick.

 

[ybahman]

@ybahman - it seems that TouchMe is creating a log.txt at boot and each time that TouchMe Engine is started. It is appearing in C:\Users\<mysurface>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.

I will uninstall and reinstall TouchMe engine as it is no longer auto loading at boot. Any way to hide that file so it doesn't show up in my start menu?

This was a really annoying bug that was only available for about a weekend or so. If you uninstall TouchMe (both the app and the engine), restart your computer, then reinstall, it should fix your problem.

Let me know if that solves the issue!