TouchMe Gesture Control Studio - Configure your own finger swipe gestures

[beq]

Has anyone run into any complication using TouchMe with TouchMousePointer (discussed here, and also here)? It's a lifesaver when you don't have a mouse handy, which I'd also purchased/donated.

I actually have even more questions about TouchMousePointer due to the less than clear documentation (I don't blame the guy since he's not an English speaker). Would be awesome if the TouchMe author could collaborate on making documentation or video tutorials, heh heh j/k.

Anyways, should we start to worry at some point about adding more and more input filters at the same time. I mean, the Surface already does the keyboard/mouse/touchpad, then we have capacitive touchscreen, and Microsoft digitizer, then we add Wacom digitizer driver, then TouchMousePointer and TouchMe...

 

[mennogreg]

Has anyone run into any complication using TouchMe with TouchMousePointer (discussed here, and also here)? It's a lifesaver when you don't have a mouse handy, which I'd also purchased/donated.

I actually have even more questions about TouchMousePointer due to the less than clear documentation (I don't blame the guy since he's not an English speaker). Would be awesome if the TouchMe author could collaborate on making documentation or video tutorials, heh heh j/k.

Anyways, should we start to worry at some point about adding more and more input filters at the same time. I mean, the Surface already does the keyboard/mouse/touchpad, then we have capacitive touchscreen, and Microsoft digitizer, then we add Wacom digitizer driver, then TouchMousePointer and TouchMe...

I have touchmouse pointer on the taskbar (though honestly don't use it too much), and when I have had it activated it I have not noticed any problems/conflicts with TouchMe. But then again it's mostly using one finger (two finger to right click), so perhaps that's why.

I like the idea of sharing gestures. Here's what I use:

2-finger swipe left/right to switch tabs

2-finger swipe down to refresh browser

3-finger open/close to open/close browser tab

5-finger swipe left/right to snap apps to respective side

5 finger pinch in to go back to the Start menu

5 finger pinch out to open a new window in browser, opening two browser windows in metro IE (I also use 5 finger tap left/right, if I don't want the original page to scroll due to the gesture).

That's all I have for now, as you can see most of it is centered around the browsing experience, though I'm thinking of binding other gestures for use in other apps. I also noticed he updated the app today allowing to turn off the display with a gesture, which may help if you're using it as a music player.

 

[beq]

Just curious, do your gestures in a browser often trigger that browser's pinch-and-zoom feature?

Especially with IE Desktop and Chrome (the latest Chrome now seems to force enable pinch/zoom on the SP2 even if you disable the "pinch scale" Chrome flag?).

With me, just 2-finger swiping left/right to go forward and back, would magnify the (next/previous) page by a lot, then I'd have to keep pinching to restore the view

Luckily Firefox is not nearly as prone to this. But when it does happen it's worse, because Firefox actually treats pinch/zoom as a change in the page zoom level (for example from 100% page zoom to 140%). Then I can't just pinch to restore magnification, because it wouldn't stop at 100% but would keep going down to 80%, 50%, etc.


P.S. I also get inadvertent scrolling and magnification with the 3/4/5 finger pinch in/pinch out gestures...

 

[mennogreg]

No, or if it does happen it must be rarely. I keep my fingers close together with my two finger swipes, maybe that plays a role as to why. I use only metro and desktop IE when using the gestures, so can't comment on the other browsers.

I did make a typo in my previous post, I use three finger tap to open a browser, and 3 finger pinch in to close (so the inadvertent zoom in doesn't matter for that). But yeah, ever pinch in/out gesture will cause zooming, which is why swipes/taps are better unless its closing/minimizing something (but yeah, I agree sometimes I get three finger taps mixed up with four finger ones)

 

[beq]

No, or if it does happen it must be rarely. I keep my fingers close together with my two finger swipes, maybe that plays a role as to why. I use only metro and desktop IE when using the gestures, so can't comment on the other browsers.

I think you're right, my swipes triggering zooming doesn't seem to happen with IE as often as Chrome, after all.

I also noticed that Chrome now also treats two finger taps as a right click, which affects 2-finger tip-tap gestures. All in all, the latest version of Chrome seems to have changed touch behavior on the SP2 significantly (which is good news in general, were it not for any interaction with 3rd-party gesture engines)...

I did make a typo in my previous post, I use three finger tap to open a browser, and 3 finger pinch in to close (so the inadvertent zoom in doesn't matter for that). But yeah, ever pinch in/out gesture will cause zooming, which is why swipes/taps are better unless its closing/minimizing something (but yeah, I agree sometimes I get three finger taps mixed up with four finger ones)

Hmm that makes sense. OK I'll try switching some of my gestures from pinching (or swiping), to tip-taps. I think I'll stick to tip-tap left though, which is easier for me to do (especially with my thumb as the second tap)

 

[beq]

I also noticed he updated the app today

Wow nice update, rotation gestures added. Looking at the author's blog and forum posts, I now see that he's got other big things coming down the pike. Exciting!

Are you guys doing rotations to include the thumb (spinning opposite the other fingers), or just the other fingers without the thumb?

 

[ybahman]

Wow nice update, rotation gestures added. Looking at the author's blog and forum posts, I now see that he's got other big things coming down the pike. Exciting!

Are you guys doing rotations to include the thumb (spinning opposite the other fingers), or just the other fingers without the thumb?

Man I've got a lot of catching up to do on this thread =] If you ask me, I prefer keeping my thumb on the screen when doing rotation gestures because it allows you to do 90% of the movement with your fingers and wrist instead of using your whole arm. BUT I figured people would do both, so it's written in such a way that either will work just fine. You can even keep your thumb in one place and move the other two fingers around it.

And for triggering unwanted pinches/scrolls when performing gestures... that's a very challenging thing to do. It's something I think about daily but there isn't much I can do about it. Here's a blerb I wrote in response to a request for this on the UserVoice page:

In order to solve this problem, I would have to intercept touch input from ALL apps, which isn’t possible unless my app is running as an accessibility app, which is a major design change and would break a lot of other scenarios (like the super simple installer and auto-updater). I’m planning on looking into this one day but it’s not likely to happen due to the sheer volume of complications. For example, I would have to intercept input, but how would I know to do that? I would have to intercept a lot of input and decide if there’s a gesture, then reinject it back in as QUICKLY as possible if there isn’t which gets sticky fast. Even if I knew when to intercept perfectly, it’s not easily possible to switch between intercepting and non-intercepting. Anyway, it’s a minefield and the negative impact of the bug is tiny, so I think time would be better spent adding new features instead like rotation gestures, app launching, and scripting.​

 

[Dim-Ize]

Thanks for this thread! I downloaded it last night and played with it. This is very, very clever. Can't wait to send this to my cousin and one of my close friends.

Just wondering though, today all the gestures were disabled except Two Finger Tip-Tap and Two Finger Keyboard stating that the trial had expired. I did go through a timezone today (from EST to CDT) but didn't even get 24 hours on it to test it out. I think I'll just buy it anyway, but wondering if there is something wrong first...?

Anyone else have it expire that purchased it?

 

[beq]

Good tips, thanks!

I figured out that the latest desktop Chrome now has many of the same touch interactions as Metro IE, by default. For example, tapping on the URL bar or any text field in Chrome automatically brings up the touch keyboard already. There are also 1-finger swipe left/right to go forward/back, pinch/zoom, and even 2-finger tap as right-click (context menu).

So on these 2 browsers I can just rely on the native forward/back gestures (and keyboard trigger) instead of TouchMe gestures, thereby avoiding any inadvertent zooming/scrolling. But I can still use TouchMe forward/back gestures on Firefox and desktop IE, which is OK because they (especially Firefox) are not as sensitive to accidental zooming as Chrome seems to be.

Surprisingly the rotation gestures seem to be very reliable thus far. I think I also like how you adjusted the sensitivity of some of the other gestures (could be my imagination, but tip-taps seem to require more deliberate tapping).

 

[beq]

Anyways, my choice of gestures always seems like a work in progress. I have now changed to the following (which I duplicated to all my family's SP2 units, even though they may have their own preferences, oh well):

- 2 finger tip-tap left to hide touch keyboard, tip-tap right to show (Chrome also registers this as a right-click function, but I don't need to use this particular gesture in Chrome anyways since that browser already calls up the keyboard automatically. But I decided against swipe gestures to avoid accidental scrolling in all apps.)

- 2 finger swipe left/right to browse forward/back (Mimics Chrome and Metro IE's native 1-finger swipe left/right, but for use with the other browsers such as Firefox and desktop IE. I'll stay with the native swipes where supported, especially in Chrome, which seems prone to accidental zooming with the way I do 2 finger swipes.)

- 2 finger rotation clockwise to go to next tab, counter-clockwise for previous tab (Rotation gestures surprisingly reliable, and don't seem as prone to accidental zooming/scrolling! But still mulling over what functions I want to use them for...)

- 2 finger swipe down to refresh tab (Mimics smartphone/tablet apps where you drag down and release to refresh content)

- 3 finger swipe down to open new tab (Still mulling over which gesture is best for new tab. Decided against pinch outward to avoid triggering magnification of current tab.)

- 3 finger pinch in to close tab

- 3 finger rotation (both ways) to toggle rotation lock (Since 2 finger rotation already being used...)

- 4 finger swipe up/down to raise/lower brightness (Since 3 finger swipe down already being used...)

- 4 finger pinch in to show desktop (Still mulling over show desktop vs show task switcher...)

 

[ybahman]

Thanks for this thread! I downloaded it last night and played with it. This is very, very clever. Can't wait to send this to my cousin and one of my close friends.

Just wondering though, today all the gestures were disabled except Two Finger Tip-Tap and Two Finger Keyboard stating that the trial had expired. I did go through a timezone today (from EST to CDT) but didn't even get 24 hours on it to test it out. I think I'll just buy it anyway, but wondering if there is something wrong first...?

Anyone else have it expire that purchased it?

That's definitely a huge problem. It should give you about 32 days to try it out... although they all had thenline through them, did they still work?

Also, do you have any other friends or family members that share the account with you? If somebody else downloaded it first, the count down would start then.

 

[Dim-Ize]

Thanks Yb. No one shares my account. I had 32 days last night when I loaded it and got home tonight from traveling. Was going to play with it/practice and noticed they were all lined out. Didn't try to see if they still worked, lol (blushing).

In bed on a Playbook and wiped out. Will try tomorrow but will purchase anyway. Great product and definitely worth it for the limited time I played around. I just have to train muscle memory. I use mostly desktop mode on my SP2 for work. This will motivate me to really embrace the touch experience vs mouse keyboard. I think you need to get this on MS mail stack vs app store for a bigger sale.

This should be native across their OS. Its that important especially given their recent announcements.