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#43
Originally Posted by Mentalist Traceur View Post
Question: The way Stantum screens detect multitouch is they are able to get contact data from every grid point on the screen individually and based on pressure/distribution are pretty easily able to figure out what spot is one touch, and which is another.

Is there something about the actual physical make up of the N900 screen that makes it incapable of this? Or is it just that whatever hardware does the processing of the inputs isn't meant to figure this stuff out? If the latter, what level of access, if any, can the operating system get to the raw outputs of the screen hardware? (Now, stantum screens have their own preprocessor that does the calculations/whatever to tell the device where the touches are, so if this was even remotely possible, it would probably rape the CPU and be practically useless. But I am still curious, is there something inherent about how most resistive screens are built that makes them incapable of detecting presses the same way, at the very very fundamental level? Or is it that Stantum was the only one that bothered to figure out how to calculate separate touches from all the inputs?)
Yes, basically a resistive screen is made of two planes of parallel cables (one set perpendicular to the other) with elastic spacers in between. When you touch a point you actually short one horizontal cable say y=2 with one vertical x=1. So you have your coordinates. If you touch two points you have two x's and two y's so four possible points. That is the inherent problem of basic resistive screens. Stantum screens on the other side have 3 layers of conductors (one being diagonal I think) so they can do the math and produce two seperate touch points.
HOWEVER those 4 possible points are perfectly enough for both pinch and rotate, the most used multirouch gestures.


Ok i replied to an old post by accident, but i leave the reply there for historical reasons. Also I stated 3 layers probably incorrectly. More than 2 anyway.
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Last edited by qwazix; 2011-08-21 at 10:45.
 

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