GSoC enthusiast hoping to integrate multi-touch user-interface

[Ashish Kumar Rai <mr ashish rai gmail com>]

Respected Sir, 

I am a GSoC enthusiast hoping to integrate
multi-touch user-interface with the help of MPX ( Multi-Pointer X ) in MT enabled desktop/surface.

Multi-touch denotes a set of interaction techniques which allow
computer users to control graphical applications with several fingers.
The multi-touch technology is in a development stage and offers immense
opportunities - both technical and economical. It will help in putting
computers to a variety of new applications and open up new kinds of avenues.
I feel that Multi-touch has started to show that it will be the next-big-thing in the field of User Interface.




I do feel that Multi-Touch(MT) stuff is still in infancy stage but it
has started to show its effect through the phenomenal success of IPhone
and various big-shot companies are pouring in huge money to develop
in-house multi-touch software. Hence I would like to propose to start
with the development of MT based user interface the new generation desktop/surface systems.

It is much more intuitive and friendly way for an architect or a
designer to develop and show models with his both hands by directly
touching the models instead of using the mouse as a pointer device
which is more abstract.  A user can very easily and in natural way can
navigate/use an application based on Multi-Touch user interface.

MPX
provides multiple independent pointers (mouse cursors) at the windowing
system level. Since gesture depends a lot on the context, gesture
support is not required in the X. A gesture in one context can mean
something different in a
different context. And the only thing that knows the context is the
application, very similar to a button press.Pressing a mouse
button can mean a zillion different things, depending where and when it
happens. That's why all X does is relay the button press to a client
application, which then does the right thing.
I am trying to build
the gesture recognition and other supportive framework on MPX so that
multiple blob events in one application is also supported. The final
result will be a full framework wherein Multi-touch applications can be
easily and quickly developed and debugged and several MT applications
can be running at the same time. ( not just several single touch
applications running parallely on a MT surface .)



I am very much hopeful that intelligent multi-touch surfaces will
replace all kinds of desktops and laptops that we see as shown very
much in Hollywood movies and to some extent in high profiles labs and
military installations. [ commandline will however exist too :) ]  I
have been working with MT stuff for over a year and have
developed one of my own FTIR based setup (  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp8SpXfChkY )  and currently developing a laser based planar MT surface. On the software side I have also build a simulator ( QMTSIM
) for fast and efficient development of Multi-Touch software even if
you dont own a MT surface. The project has been highly popular and is
available for both windows and Linux. This project was my GSoC project
last summer which I successfully completed under the mentorship of
NuiGroup (Pawel Solyga).

I
am looking forward for a positive reply from your side and I feel that
you will make me conversant about my prospects for  this project under
your guidance. I am hoping to make a full proposal with a time line and
the deliverables  and start working if you think that this could be a
viable GSoC project.

Waiting for your comments and suggestions eagerly !!



-- 
Cheers,

Ashish Kumar Rai
Electronics Engineering Department,
IT-BHU