using laptops mouse pad as a kanji recogniser

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Reply #1 - 2008 January 03, 7:03 am
thegeezer3 Member
From: manchester - uk Registered: 2005-11-05 Posts: 122

ive been using my trusty mouse and the ime to draw my kanji in. Needless to say its aqward despite the numerous years practice i had on deluxe paint as a kid. Is there a way to use the touchpad on laptops to draw the kanji with your finger tip like you would when reviewing your kanji on the palm of your hand.

Rather than the touchpad representing the space on the entire screen it would simply be limited to the size of the little drawing pad the ime presents you. Perhaps pressing some button could activate it.

If this were possible then it would elimanate the need for touchscreens or ppcs. Anyone got any thoughts on this? Id like to program such as app but unfortuately my skills aint upto. Perhaps resolve might like to include such a function in anki - nudge nudge wink wink.

Reply #2 - 2008 January 07, 8:19 pm
syntoad Member
From: Amagasaki Registered: 2006-11-05 Posts: 49

This would take a lot more work than it seems like. I believe not all touchpads are created equal, so depending on the model of pad you may have to access completely different touchpad drivers to do this. Not to mention the fact that you can't use a stylus with a touchpad. An easier solution may be just to go out and buy a cheap tablet. I've seen small ones that run around $30-40 USD. I've actually been considering doing this myself.

Reply #3 - 2008 January 11, 7:06 pm
thegeezer3 Member
From: manchester - uk Registered: 2005-11-05 Posts: 122

hmm i suppose so but during my games programming days I realised that with direct X interfacing with other input stuff such as joypads etc was all nicely handled by just a few objects. The interaction with all those input devices was just wrapped up inside some generic function call. I wonder if thats the case with these touchpads.... i wonder if microsoft has some go between.

Im not so interested in using a stylus on the touchpad, just my finger to draw the kanji - just as japanese people would do on their hand. It seems a shame to have to invest in another device when theres something bundled with all laptops that could in theory at least do the job required just fine.

does anyone have any more info on tablets?

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Reply #4 - 2008 January 11, 11:01 pm
rtkrtk Member
From: Japan Registered: 2007-10-16 Posts: 27

Interesting idea. To do this you need to get absolute coordinates from the touchpad, not relative coordinates. I think in normal operation mode the touchpad only detects the direction of your finger motion, not the actual position of your finger on the touchpad.

However after some searching it seems that it should be possible to switch the touchpad into absolute mode to get the absolute coordinates of the touchpad touch.

Under Linux see http://search.luky.org/linux-kernel.2005/msg09994.html . For Windows see http://www.bokebb.com/dev/english/1997/ … 4723.shtml .

Reply #5 - 2008 January 12, 1:43 pm
Jarvik7 Member
From: 名古屋 Registered: 2007-03-05 Posts: 3946

syntoad wrote:

Not to mention the fact that you can't use a stylus with a touchpad.

That is not entirely true. I once had a keyboard/touchpad 2-in-1 long ago that could use a stylus. (No it wasn't a drawing tablet) It wasn't your normal stylus though, the end had a flat piece of copper attached to a swivel. It would still work on other/current touchpads, since they generally function based on capacitance (try moving some metal around your touchpad to see, I just tried with my watch).

Reply #6 - 2013 May 25, 9:12 am
worthy7 Member
Registered: 2012-11-09 Posts: 22

Hi there everyone, I actually just came up with this exact same idea myself. I noticed recently Mac seems to have gotten this down:
http://redcocoon.org/cab/j4mactyping.html (See Trackpad Handwriting)

Did anyone take this idea further? Or perhaps work something out?

Reply #7 - 2013 May 26, 12:42 pm
visualsense Member
Registered: 2008-07-05 Posts: 29

As a temporary crude solution you could open a online kanji recognition site, like:
http://kanji.sljfaq.org/

then use your browser's "zoom" feature ("ctlr" + "+" on most windows browsers) to increase the size of the site and hence, the writing box too.

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