Programming a Touch Screen

Hello,

I recently came up with an interesting idea (although I'm sure it's been done before). I want to connect a touch screen LCD monitor to my computer and be able to use it to use GAIM or any other IM client and run iTunes or another music program. My real question is, is it possible to program this screen to display programs and utilize them using my existent computer? Is there a site or a book on what program to use and how to use it? I know this may sound far fetched, but I would be willing to learn and put in several months to get a positive result. Thanks in advance.

Atomic Ferret

Basically like a tablet PC? They do sell that type of screen and software (which I guess would come with the screens). I doubt you could do it with your current screen as they utilize sensors of some sort in the screen itself.

A touchscreen monitor is nothing special in terms of programming for it other than the controls have to be made big enough for one's fat fingers to click them. Without getting into technobabble and types of touchscreens the output that it sends to the computer is the same as mouse. A typical TS monitor will be hooked up as VGA/DVI and also using either USB or serial port for "mouse" input.

I'm not sure what you mean by "program the screen", you don't program a screen, you can write custom programs that open in the certain area, or use certain monitor, some (many?) programs allow you to set default location/size etc as option or preference, so that they open up on your touchscreen monitor rather than the other one, but specifics depend on what it is that you use.

In simplest form the issue is as complicated as hooking the monitor up, you're done. But then I'm not sure if I really understand what is it that you're trying to accomplish.

Okay, I want to have a touch screen monitor as an auxiliary monitor. I want to be able to turn it on and use AIM and a music program. Now if I understand what was said, I cannot do that because my computer would recognize it as just another mouse. Does this mean I need to build another computer?

And yes, I do not mean actually programming the monitor, I mean programming something so that I can use the monitor as a custom input device. The main purpose is so I can play a full-screen game and look over at this panel to see if I have an IM or an e-mail or control my music.

So basically, I want to know if I can hook up a touch screen panel to my computer and have it show a custom background and menu that I could program, such as having my own icons and a completely custom look (in other words, not looking like windows or mac OS). I do not want it to work like a mouse and control my desktop monitor. I want it to be its own independent display that uses applications from my desktop (or another computer if necessary).

Sorry about being a bit unclear and thanks again for all the help.

Atomic Ferret

atomic ferret said:

Now if I understand what was said, I cannot do that because my computer would recognize it as just another mouse. Does this mean I need to build another computer?

Click to expand...

Maybe, No and No

1). There is nothing wrong with having multiple input devices hooked up to the same computer. I.e a mouse, a trackball, a TS monitor, a pen tablet, list goes on.

2). The touchscreen works much in the same way as a mouse but it's input control is limited to its own screen area. I.e. when you touch the screen in the middle, it will move the mouse pointer to that spot and "click" that spot. The best way to look at it would be not as a second mouse but rather extended control of your primary mouse. But like I said it is only limited to the area of the TS monitor. I'm not sure how to explain it more clearly.

3). No you do not "need" to build another computer.
What you would do is just attach the TS monitor, just like any other monitor, extend the desktop to include it. If you want to put some icons there you'd do it the same way as if you were using any multi-monitor setup. A TS monitor is absolutely no different than any other monitor, other than instead moving your mouse to click an icon there, you can click it with your finger, and end up with the same result.

As far as customizing that screen only, touchscreen or not, you'd have to look simply into some desktop management software able to handle multiple displays in different or particular ways or one that suits your needs. But in the basic form, like I said, all you need to do is to hook the monitor up and organize your desktop according to your liking.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some of this software to program it? To get a better idea of what I'm saying, here's a crappy Paint picture.

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I want to have the arch stay always on the screen and just have the main image viewer change depending on the program. Is this possible, and if so, I can't seem to find any sites that would help me with this. If anyone knows where I can find more info or software, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Atomic Ferret

As mentioned you can't really program the screen itself.

What I understand you want to do is have this second screen open with some applications that you can use indepenently of your main screen. That in itself can be a problem as many game will totally take over all screens connected, and just display an image on a single screen (primary screen).

What you could do to accomplish the rest of your desired plan is just create a simple application with an interface you want, and have it start with Windows as a mximized window. Think of Windows Media Center, only connected to a touch screen instead of a remote. Then just have the interface with buttons doing whatever you want wherever you want. I don't know how good you are with programming (if you have any experience) but it would be pretty simple using Visual Basic. You draw out the interface and have each button call some other application (IE, AIM, whatever). How are you planning on doing text input though?

The on-screen keyboard could do the text input.

Instead of VB though, it would probably be easier to build the GUI in Java. The support base is much larger, as well the syntax is much more straight forward (at least I think so).

This sounds like a neat project. For a GUI, you probably want to use an existing toolkit. There are dozens upon dozens out there, but my suggestion is the QT library from Trolltech. It's supported on many platforms, and is C++ based. It's all very object-oriented, and there are many styles available to customize the look and feel.

http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt

Okay, so say I were to buy a touchscreen and connect it to my computer. It would act like a mouse input as far as I can tell. What application could I use to program the functions of the screen (C++, Java, or VB)? Could someone point me to one?

Also, I have some programming knowledge, but I'm a quick learner. I really want to use a custom GUI like my pathetic paint picture displays. I presume once I have an application with which to program, I would be able to figure out how to design it.

Thanks for all the help, I really want to make this happen.

Atomic Ferret

(For Java) NetBeans has a GUI builder. I've never used it, but it should do the trick if you don't want to learn how to build from scratch:

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp (click JDK 6 with NetBeans 5.5)

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/50/quickstart-gui.html (tutorial)

Thanks a lot Knacko, the program works great. I have been doing their tutorials and it doesn't seem too challenging.