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Android 3-DOF Controller App

Hello guys. I've just released my app's source code as well as a short video at:
http://androidcontroller.googlecode.com/
--necessary improvements list--
on the Android side:
* service discovery so that the client and the server can find each other on the local network (it's very annoying having to manualy enter an IP address in a textfield that's why I change the source code every time and compile with the new ip )
* kalman (or some other kind of) filtering to smooth the sensor output
* improve menus/configuration/interface
* look for a marker and calibrate automaticaly
on the windows side:
* switch model you're rotating somehow (ability to load models via xaml files?)
* interact with the object (I'm already transmitting the touch screen's x/y event)
* smooth the sensor data on the windows side to take the load off the android app
* sounds
* transmit images to display on android or sounds?
I would appreciate VERY much ANY help that anybody could provide. If you are interested in contributing code please contact me and I will add you to the project members list.

Well Done !
congrats

HES A JUBEH IMPOSTER
Just kidding, awesome app btw

wow...this is pretty cool. I would love to help but due to my lack of knowledge in this. Keep up the good work!!

Great work, I'd love to see how this develops.
Starred in google code.

Everybody thanks for the encouraging remarks

re
Génial___$$$$$$$$

Draw custom buttons to the touch screen which send keyboard commands to windows, and implement gamepad support for the sensors? Then this could be used as an input device for a computer.

bjehsus said:
Draw custom buttons to the touch screen which send keyboard commands to windows, and implement gamepad support for the sensors? Then this could be used as an input device for a computer.
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Click to collapse
But if I do that then the touch screen becomes just another gamepad, and a bad one for that matter since touch screens have no tactile feedback (i.e. the finger is not aware of wether it has pushed the button or not). Tactile feedback could be implemented via vibration or perhaps even audio feedback with sound for button press but both those scenarios are impractical for a gaming situation where buttons are being pressed at a frantic pace.
Besides I wanna do more than just pushing buttons. Something with touching/swiping gestures etc. Transmitting data from the pc to the mobile device, or sounds? ooor.. dunno^^
I need some good ideas on what more one could do with this ^_^

I'd be more than happy to help, unfortunately the most I can do for you is clean up images and menu buttons. If you need any of that done feel free to hit me up.

woah
This is really cool. Are there any real apps available yet?

henrynhl said:
This is really cool. Are there any real apps available yet?
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Click to collapse
Plx define 'real' apps.

Actually this is a great idea, I'm surprised no one had thought of it yet.
Blender (open source 3d suite) supports NDOF devices nowadays - I'll see about giving this a try when I get a chance, and perhaps contribute some code (and we'd need a linux server as well, which shouldn't be too big of a deal)

Jubei said:
But if I do that then the touch screen becomes just another gamepad, and a bad one for that matter since touch screens have no tactile feedback (i.e. the finger is not aware of wether it has pushed the button or not). Tactile feedback could be implemented via vibration or perhaps even audio feedback with sound for button press but both those scenarios are impractical for a gaming situation where buttons are being pressed at a frantic pace.
Besides I wanna do more than just pushing buttons. Something with touching/swiping gestures etc. Transmitting data from the pc to the mobile device, or sounds? ooor.. dunno^^
I need some good ideas on what more one could do with this ^_^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an idea, heh...use it to control the mouse on a PC.
There are remotes that work using accelerometers and such...by tilting the remote up, it moves the mouse arrow on the screen up, left goes left, etc. Then simply have the screen react to a short tap(which would be a single click), double tap (which would be a double click), and a long press (for right click).
That is certainly something that I would use on a daily basis.

jmhecker said:
I have an idea, heh...use it to control the mouse on a PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback jmhecker! Do you mean like a wiimote? If so then unfortunately that's not possible with the HTC Dream unless the user performs some kind of calibration process first (because the device has no way of knowing where the monitor is). So first some sort of calibration would be necessary, which could be done by placing a marker/qr code on the monitor then pointing the camera OR just pointing the device to the middle of the screen and pressing a button (which is what i"m doing now to calibrate).
Jubei

Jubei said:
Thanks for your feedback jmhecker! Do you mean like a wiimote? If so then unfortunately that's not possible with the HTC Dream unless the user performs some kind of calibration process first (because the device has no way of knowing where the monitor is). So first some sort of calibration would be necessary, which could be done by placing a marker/qr code on the monitor then pointing the camera OR just pointing the device to the middle of the screen and pressing a button (which is what i"m doing now to calibrate).
Jubei
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kind of like that, yes. But, not exactly.
Basically, the phone knows when it is in 'zero' position. IE: lying flat on its back.
Now, I tilt the phone (rotate) to the left a smidge, so it look like / (when looking at it if it were in front of you...what oyu see is the bottom (where the plug is) of the phone. Now, when you tilt it like that, the mouse cursor moves left. Then when you turn it like \, it moves right...tilt the phone forward, it moves down, and tilt it backwards, and it moves up.
Kind of what you have being done already with the video and the plane in it...but, rather than move the plane, move the mouse cursor.
Does that make sense?

This with remote droid...
jmhecker said:
Kind of like that, yes. But, not exactly.
Basically, the phone knows when it is in 'zero' position. IE: lying flat on its back.
Now, I tilt the phone (rotate) to the left a smidge, so it look like / (when looking at it if it were in front of you...what oyu see is the bottom (where the plug is) of the phone. Now, when you tilt it like that, the mouse cursor moves left. Then when you turn it like \, it moves right...tilt the phone forward, it moves down, and tilt it backwards, and it moves up.
Kind of what you have being done already with the video and the plane in it...but, rather than move the plane, move the mouse cursor.
Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could see this working with RemoteDroid, or something of that nature. Make the tilt like a joystick, and the screen with a touch pad and buttons. That would make a killer game controller

jmhecker said:
Kind of what you have being done already with the video and the plane in it...but, rather than move the plane, move the mouse cursor.
Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does yes. But i think it would require a lot of work to be usable because isometric or isotonic (speed of cursor relative to tilt angle) devices are not nearly as usable as mice. So in the end you'd spend so much hours coding just to have another mouse, whereas I think this device can be more.
it has a speaker, a display, vibration, buttons, keyboard, a trackball, sound. It has a lot of potential to be used just as a simple mouse.

Question about the sensor of touch pro

As i know that touch pro is not only can be touched on the screen but also the hard button area ( home, back, call, hang up buttons)
How can i use that feature
Which software that i need to install or how can i active it
Thank for reading my topic

What do you want exactly? Do you want to remap hardware buttons?

the hardware buttons are enabled by default. you don't have to 'activate' them.

No! My point is how can i use the sensor of hardware button ^^

Well,did you mean to use the capacitive surface of those sensors,not the buttons itself? And what exactly do you want? Please explain.

google for "G-scroll"

TomasNM said:
Well,did you mean to use the capacitive surface of those sensors,not the buttons itself? And what exactly do you want? Please explain.
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Click to collapse
My point is
Instead of pushing down the 4 hard buttons (call, back, home, hang off) i just need to touch it on the surface?

You can buy gscroll (mobilesrc.com), but unless you can get the 1.x series, I'd pass. The 2.x series is buggy as hell, and it seems like development has stopped. There are some free apps you can find around here as well. I'm thinking Dredscroll is one, and there was another app called Butler (I think, lol) that allowed you to use it as a launcher with gestures on the area. Gscroll lets you swipe to scroll (it's good for reading ebooks, when it's working) as well as to launch things, but it has the annoying habit of going on smoking breaks.

As I know HTC testing software,I can say,it could not be a problem to create an app of this kind,but...
- Do we have SDK for it(I didin't searched for it yet)?
- Currently I don't know,how to send keyboard hooks to the system
- I cannot prevent/disable default keyboard hooks
So that means,I am not able to solve your puzzle. Sorry.
That was my honest opinion...

I don't think he's asking about the Vibrant-Scroll Wheel, I think he's talking about the Optical Track, itself.
[As the Home, Back, Answer, & End Call buttons require you to actually PUSH them down.]
You know, the "OK/Enter" button. When you place you finger on it [NOT PRESS IT], by default, it lights up the Bottom Hardware Keys, as well as brightens the screen.
If it's not working for you, I recommend Backing up your Important Information with either SPB Backup or Microsoft MyPhone, and flashing a New ROM. There are certain Drivers that control the Optical Track. What they are, however, is beyond me.

Gametel bluetooth game controller now available in US. [pic plus review]

The Gametel controller is now available on Amazon.com. I got mine in the mail today. Here's a quick review.
It came with no battery charge, so I had to plug it in to test it out. I was using a USB cable plugged into my computer. At first it only showed a red light to indicate charging, but then a green light came on shortly afterward. This is supposed to indicate that it's on but not paired. I tried pairing with the device using the Gametel software from the market, but it would not work. Turns out you can't use the controller while it's plugged into a computer. As soon as I unplugged it it turned off, and when I turned it back on it paired fine. I tested it again while plugged in and it still wouldn't connect to the phone. No big deal, but it's a minor hassle. It might work fine when plugged into an outlet. It supposedly has a 9 hour battery life, so just keep it charged and this issue should never bother you.
Despite the One X's huge size it fits fine, even with a TPU case. The TPU case has the added benefit of keeping the controller arm from pressing the down volume button. The software has a feature to disable the volume keys because of this potential issue, but it's nice that I didn't need to use it. It says it can provide volume control using the device itself, but I'm not sure how that would work, since all the physical buttons are mapped to SNES buttons for my purposes. You could always slide the phone a little bit to the left and it wouldn't hit the volume key. The phone would be off center, but it wouldn't be too bad.
The controller acts as a virtual keyboard. As part of the software setup it installs an input method in your keyboard settings. As soon as you launch the software it prompts you to change to its input method, which is handy. Then you can launch your favorite emulator and map the keys is uses to the emulator's buttons.
I initially had problems with the default keys that the controller was emitting. I'm used to an SNES button layout, so I will call the buttons X (top), Y (left), B (bottom), A (right). For some crazy reason the A button was emitting the Android "Back" button by default. This was mappable in Snes9x EX, but pressing it still performed the "Back" action which prompted you to quit the game. The B button was emitting the "DPAD Center", which worked, but was an odd choice. It's even stranger because none of the preset key configs in the Gametel software's Advanced Settings have this setup. If this happens to anyone else, just load the Android Gamepad preset and it will work fine. However, it reverses X & Y and A & B from what I'm used to, so I made my own preset named SNES. That way when I configure Snes9x the purpose of the button matches up with the key being emitted.
As for the controller's buttons and D-pad, they are OK. The buttons are great, but the D-pad makes you move diagonally a little too easily. If anyone is familiar with the Xbox 360 D-pad, it's the same sort of problem, but not as bad. Maybe with more time I'll get used to the feel of exactly where to press to avoid moving diagonally. Part of the problem is the D-pad is circular instead of cross-shaped. It's hard for your thumb to feel exactly where the cardinal directions are. This isn't the entire problem, though, because the 360 controller has clearly raised cardinal directions and it still sucks really bad. Thankfully it's not nearly that bad with this D-pad. Pretty much anything is better than on-screen controls.

That actually looks pretty cool.
I don't game enough to need this and touchscreen controls don't bother me enough, but thanks for the review!

As it turns out, the D-pad is really ****ty. This is most noticeable in games with movement in both directions, like Secret of Mana. Zelda wasn't so bad because you move kind of slow and you can adjust your thumb position if you notice yourself moving diagonally by accident. However, in Secret of Mana you fly across the screen, and moving diagonally by accident for a second can really put you off course. In a game like Super Mario World you don't really notice the problem.
I might have to try an iControlPad. I just really liked the Gametel's single-piece design and spring-loaded arm.

Sixaxis controller app and ps3 controller.. All you'll ever need
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app

Is a mouse-drag-lock functionality possible?

Your first reaction to this might be, why would anyone need this on a touch screen device?
This is why:
I have a muscular disease which makes my body very weak and I’m using an electrical wheelchair. On my wheelchair I have a Bluetooth module which allow me to operate the mouse pointer using the joystick on my wheelchair. I can move the mouse pointer and with a quick push to the left I do a click. Since a click is being made by quickly pushing the joystick to its side I can never click and move the pointer at the same time. Because of this I can’t use any functions or apps which requires drag and drop, like e.g. playing Wordfeud.
My dream solution would be:
A widget were I quickly and easily can turn drag-lock on and off by clicking on it. When active the first click would behave like the button is pressed down, until I make a new click which then would release it.
Questions:
Is it possible to make a function like this for Android? And if so, does anyone here have the knowledge to please make such a widget/app/service? I guess it needs to be some kind of background service so it can be active even when other apps are in the foreground.
(Hope I'm not breaking any rules by saying this, but I would even be happy to pay a small fee for your efforts if you can accept PayPal.)

[Q] Can the middle button behave like a capacitive button?

Is there any way to set the fingerprint button to behave like a capacitive button? I really just want to dab my finger on it and not have to depress, like the other two keys. I know the scanner registers contact but that click press it's really annoying when I just want the "desktop" etc. I think it would do wonders for the buttons longevity too... This may seem like a minor thing but it would really make the make the whole user interaction thing more standard. Having to big press one of three buttons is odd..

You can get a lot of apps that add "soft buttons" to your screen for things like Home. One that jumps to mind is called Button Savior.
That was my way of saying that, no, I don't think you can use that button without actually "clicking" it.

You could try the app called swype home button, just swype up from the screen just above it and itll take you home.

I completely agree with your desire here OP. Coming from an LG optimus G, I find myself gently tapping the button hoping for home.
As an alternative, I'd recommend the pie launcher app in the play store. No root required unless you want menu button functionality. Makes for a nice, easy to reach one handed set of on screen buttons that are only there when you need them, and you can use it as an app launcher too.

pisanty said:
Is there any way to set the fingerprint button to behave like a capacitive button? I really just want to dab my finger on it and not have to depress, like the other two keys. I know the scanner registers contact but that click press it's really annoying when I just want the "desktop" etc. I think it would do wonders for the buttons longevity too... This may seem like a minor thing but it would really make the make the whole user interaction thing more standard. Having to big press one of three buttons is odd..
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There has to be a way to do it because of the fingerprint sensor. I'm sure custom kernels soon will have this feature.

Bump any new ideas here?