MultiTouch Exists – NOW- Without New Hardware or Software

READ UNTIL THE END FOR MY PROOF THAT MULTITOUCH DOES WORK RIGHT NOW ON OUR PHONES – VIDEO INCLUDED! I began to write this thinking it was theoretical and it turns out it is REAL RIGHT NOW!!!

I was reading this thread on XDA about attempts to get multitouch working on a Touch HD (essentially they propose that when two points are pressed a virtual keypress occurs between the two points). So with that in mind if you wanted to press two points that are one inch apart the keypress would register in between the two points so when creating an onscreen keypad the point in between is actually where you would map the key to and that virtual key would mapped to both keys being pressed. After reading over 90 postings it was still unclear to me if anyone has gotten a virtual keypress to work but it did lead me to this article and video. Jamie Fuller’s Nokia 5800 (with the same resistive screen as Windows phones have) is clearly showing two screen presses being registered simultaneously in a game that is similar to Guitar Hero. Just check this out:

From this article about Jamie’s work it sounds as though in order for it to work the keys need to be distanced apart in order to get accurate keypresses so I’m not sure we’ll ever see a working Play Station game pad but at least now I have hope that something can be done with the existing hardware. He does note that more than two keypresses can occur and be detected.

The creator of another Nokia method (Sittiphol Phanvilai) states that at least one of the two points must be fixed and one can move. So great news for Nokia users and I’m actually pretty excited as well. If the ‘method’ to get multitouch is accurate that means that a Windows version should be possible as well and based on the huge developer community it should be probable as well.

READY- HERE IT IS

I took my wife’s Touch HD (it has a larger screen so it’s easier to demonstrate on and utilize) and used two styluses and pressed two points on the screen. You will see that a screen press occurs between the two points and that the application launches. I will tell you that it is hard to reproduce (it’s maybe 25% of the time) but it 100% does work and I can do it on the Fuze and Touch HD. Give it a go but have patience. I noticed that a sharper object works better (a nail works better than your entire finger) probably because they create a ‘crisper’ point. The video was cut so that you didn’t have to watch failed attempts but you don’t need a video – you can do it right now! [Sorry the video is upside down and so screwed up – I had my Fuze on a soap dispenser and I was pretty excited to get it on video:)]

Theoretically you can make multi-touch presses so long as you map a virtual key in the middle of the presses (like in the photo at the top of the posting) and that would be programmed to acknowledge two key presses simultaneously. So developer’s, please start developing with this in mind since we now know that multitouch exists!