Native Multi-Touch Support On Linux

Phoronix writes about Mohamed-Ikbel Boulabiar and his team at the Interactive Computing Lab in ENAC, Toulouse that have been successful in bringing native multi-touch support to Linux. While there is Multi-Pointer X in the mainlinue X.Org server (to be released with X.Org 7.5 / X Server 1.7), there is now multi-touch support to be able to handle gestures and other actions.

This multi-touch support requires the Linux 2.6.30 kernel. How this works right now is by reading the input events, translating them into multi-touch events using simple gesture recognition, and then sending D-Bus messages over to Compiz to produce multi-touch effects. Right now the code is deemed just a proof of concept, but they are currently working on a better implementation. More information on their current Linux multi-touch work is available through the project web-site. Below is a video they had recorded yesterday showing off some of their multi-touch work on Linux.



Microsoft is already light-years ahead in this area with their Surface product. Multi-touch has also been receiving a lot of focus in the development of Windows 7 and MS recently showed off a collection of multitouch-exclusive softwares and games collectively known as the “Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7“. I hope Linux soon will be able to step up to the competition - game on!

More info: http://www.lii-enac.fr/en/projects/shareit/linux.html

Source: http://www.phoronix.com/