tablets that will run touch??? (sorta)

Hardware
1

gadgetmix.com/tag/windows-7-tablet-ion/

there seem to be a few windows7-based tablets coming out this year. some of them are using nvidia Ion GPU which can run touch, albeit a bit limited of course. however, it should be possible to do some cool things, depending on how well the system scales its battery consumption - and how much the artiste wants to thrash that little GPU.

Rod.

2

blog.tabletpc.com.au/2011/03/02/ … -graphics/

assuming touch will run on nvidia optimus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus, this might be a good low-power touch machine for trying out tablet interfaces. It has a 5 finger multitouch capacitance touchscreen as well as a pen-pased digitizer, maybe not a wacom one but probably reasonably compatible. should at least have pen pressure.

fujitsu have specs here but doesn’t mention the june 2011 (in australia, earlier in the rest of the world) upgraded version with the nvidia graphics.

globalsp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/do … k-t901.pdf

I don’t really understand how the optimus thing works but I gather that it allows a smoother swtichover between intel integrated graphics and nvidia graphics. I’m not sure what this particular chip is comparable in terms of geforce etc. but it should at least run touch without crashing on startup. :slight_smile:

If I find one in a shop later in the year, I’ll make sure I rock up with touch FTE on a thumbdrive and report back.

rod.

3

cool. been waiting for a tablet with nvidia gpu for ever. Hopefully they put in something decent

4

Thanks Rod for finding this…

its like a waiting for Godot moment for these win7/nvidia slates…

I’d like to get something sooner than later, so a few quick questions.

  1. My goals are primarily to use the tablet as an interface so I could go ipad2… the wiki mentions some latency with Touch Remote. Could someone elaborate?

  2. might Touch eventually support AMD or Intel integrated, especially the newest Oak Trail and GMA 600?

Thanks!

Jeffers

5

There is currently some latency in the TouchDesigner Remote app with respect to the response of interacting with panels and also the sync between the image you see in TouchDesigner vs. the Remote app. The current version of TouchDesigner Remote is our first beta of the app (we had to get AppStore approval first) and we are working on reducing these latencies for our next app update.

6

A few things I’ve noticed when using TD Remote . . .

  • Overall performance is helped a lot by reducing frame rate to 15 and lower the image quality slider on Remote
  • Performance is also helped by closing any resident (“multitasking”) iPad apps. It may be that an iPad2 will perform better.
  • Even with the above, playback rate tends to vary, sometimes seems full frame rate, other times stutters at a few frames a second
  • I can only get sliders to work, tried all variations of buttons
  • Overall it works surprisingly well for a first beta, it is great to see a slice of Touch Designer on the iPad and so many more possibilities than TouchOSC.
7

Ben,

Thanks for the information. I have been able to get my hands on an ipad2, so I see what you mean with the latency… I agree, all in all a great start, obviously this is the future of controls so I for one would love continued development on this app… makes Greg’s Mixxa being touch panel based all these years look very prescient :slight_smile: I am eager to see the update as I do see intermittent crashing if I include the output in the Panel background… can’t really pin down under what circumstances it crashes… I’ll try and flesh this out and report back.

Jeff, I’ve been thinking about the buttons/sliders thing too… I quickly realized the knob paradigm doesn’t make sense on a touch panel(just an awkward gesture), also to a lesser degree sliders. I designed a button that I feel is more efficient, perhaps when TUIK is redone this could be a new button type. Totally rudimentary and just the button, as it probably should include the status of the button in text or perhaps even slider style… just a simple press and hold ‘Up’ or ‘Down’ to adjust the values.

anyway, I’d love to start a dialogue and curious to hear how other people are approching these interface design issues…

Jeffers
ipadbutton.tox (2.37 KB)

8

adding to Jeffers’ appreciation of Mixxa.

I’ve been playing with Mixxa on a $300 Dell touchscreen and it is sooooooo much fun!

makes me want to go out and gig with it (if having a three-year-old boy didn’t leave me ready to sleep by 9pm!).

rod.

9

Yeah, cool as touch pads are sliders are a bit clunky for performance . . . no tactile feel, easy to wander of the line when looking up at the screen, etc… Your idea for a “button fader” is interesting. Hmmm, could be there’s a layout that mimics natural finger placement with button faders, maybe it would be possible to sort of touch type/perform. Maybe TD Remote gets fast enough that that is usable as preview/touch screen and it makes sense to look at your fingers when performing.

The button is working for me, I found the reason I couldn’t get any buttons working was that they don’t work when embedded in containers (with TD Remote), only at the root.

10

Looks like the new nvidia ‘kal el’ chipset could be a good contender for running touch on a tablet under windows 8 or 7.

windows8news.com/2011/08/13/ … 8-tablets/

although 12cores might not be much, they should be pretty power efficient and a great base for running touch things that experiment more with the interface than extreme 3D stuff (although it should be able to cope with a little of that).

a few likelies have been posted in the past like this one: plusgadget.com/asus-eee-pad-ep90 … es-review/ but never made it into production as far as I can tell (searching US Asus website for ep90 drew a blank) Asus insiders hint at some impressive beasts soon with the 4 core tegras but non-committal about whether there’ll be a win7 or 8 one.

It’s possible that the Lenovo Ideapad p1 will have both windows and nvidia tegra kal el at the end of 2011.

fingers crossed - got not money anyhow so dreams are free!

rod

11

another sighting of a tegra4 tablet running windows 8…

[techradar.com/news/mobile-co ... et-1053734](http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/in-pictures-nvidias-windows-8-prototype-tablet-1053734)

I’m waiting but been burned before as an early adopter - a lot, never learn …

I’d love to be able to just boot up touchdesigner and make panels over coffee (not betting on how many cups the battery will last for though…)

rod.

12

Unfortunately that tegra3 tablet is ARM based, so no chance TouchDesigner will work on it. Keep your eye out for x86 based Windows8 tablets (man this is already getting complicated!) which will be able to run regular applications compiled for Windows8.

13

I’ve got a windows 7 Asus eSlate 141 that has an intel i5 processor in it that i would be stoked to run touch on but it is has integrated intel graphics so touch won’t work on it.

14

If you are desperate, you could try Touch017 on the intel one. I remember it used to run on a toshiba M200 Tablet - or maybe that was touch 015?

on second thoughts, make control panels in pureData and sendOSC messages. :slight_smile:
on the puredata front, if you use PD extended puredata.info/downloads/pd-extended ,
you can use th eGEM libraries to get wacom pen and eraser xy and pressure to send via OSC.

rod.

15

Thanks Rod, I actually tried to use Max5 on as an OSC control panel but I had some problems with using the touchscreen on faders and buttons in Max. Every time I went to touch a fader or button I would actually have to move my finger while touching the screen in order to operate the control rather than just press it. I also had the same problem with Reactor and Reaper so I’m not sure if PD will work better or not, when I have some time though I’ll give it a try.

I was actually a little disappointed with the tablet when I found out it wouldn’t work very well as a controller for Touch.

thanks
Keith

16

sounds like it’s a problem with the interface itself on the tablet.

I’m still holding my breath and saving my pennies for when someone makes an intel-based win8 tablet - ideally with a dual finger and wacom tablet interface. :slight_smile: Easy enough to make but obviously not so easy to market.

r.

17

well… it’s nearly there - an intel tablet from ASUS with windows 8 and a detachable keyboard etc. etc. oh and wacom digitizer as well as touchscreen - but without a discrete graphics card.

eee.asus.com/global/event/2012/c … t-810.html

surely someone will add that magical lowpower geforce card for superportable gaming?

for now I’m hanging onto my money (ok, what money?) hypothetical money, and waiting for the sweetspot to arrive…

rod.

18

I wonder if you could get a custom gaming pc maker to make one (or make one yourself)?

Hypothetically all the parts exist, they just need to make the case be 1 solid brick with a touch screen monitor on the front, instead of the standard clam shell, otherwise parts from a standard laptop could be used…in theory!

Aka what these guys do to towers, someone should just do for laptops…maybe they’ll do it if you reach out?

nextcomputing.com/support/me … ault&id=78

19

oh wow, Rod, just saw this…might be the answer! No full on tech specs yet, but if its made for gaming, it’ll have a real GPU in it.

razerzone.com/projectfiona

20

what about just buying an USB powered touch screen to attach to your laptop ?
Would one of these work ?

lilliputweb.net/