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PlayStation Touch Screen for Your Linux Box
hebertrich writes to tell us that IBM DeveloperWorks has an interesting article about how to modify a PlayStation LCD for use as a touch screen panel for your Linux box. From the article: "Historically, the lack of friendly interfaces has been an obstacle to making Linux® a commercially viable product for end users, but with available GUIs, that's yesterday's news. What's the next step in creating an easy-to-use Linux-based product for consumers? Imagine adding a user-oriented LCD touchscreen. A touchscreen facade can make back-end Linux applications very usable in such devices as custom digital media centers (either in the home or in automobiles), DVRs and PVRs, and even control interfaces for household robots."
If lack of a touchscreen was holding linux back, a procedure that requires cracking something else open, cabling and soldering will not be winning you new converts or my grandmother.
I write articles such as the one mentioned above. I get payed to think and work on things that are eventually free.
Man, what a job.
I wonder if touchscreens such as this could function on ADC (Apple Display Connection), which integrates both DVI-I and USB into one plug... That way, a separate serial/USB cable for transmitting HID data wouldn't be necessary.
This message printed on 100% post-consumer recycled electrons.
Nethack Touch Screen Edition, you could... finger finger, finger bash, finger fsck... you get the point.
The Siemens simpad can run linux, thanks to open simpad [opensimpad.org]. I run Qtopia [trolltech.com] on mine, but it can also run Opie [handhelds.org] and X11 if you want that. This screen is an actual touchscreen, so I don't even need a stylus, I can use my finger.
Touchscreens. The universal UI panacea. Well, apart from speech recognition.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
to Linux really.
While the article has a point that touch-activated LCDs would indeed increase the usability of custom aps, Im not sure how it implies "...easy-to-use Linux-based product for consumers..." that would be a benefit solely to Linux. The operating system is really irrelevant, it's the LCDs that are the key technology.
Nifty project if you have the time on your hands I suppose.
I, for one, welcome our new PlayStation LCD touch screen-controlled robot overlords?
its not like they are expensive (150$), plus you get to choose between resistive or capacitance touch and get the benefits of modern TFT manufacturing and a warranty, seems like a no brainer really, or of course you can trash a PS1
how was that a question?
Looks to be possible. The plastics might even match a Mac Mini :)
Whoa... wait a minute... I thought it was a lack of a good email client that was holding Linux back.
Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
It had a question mark at the end?
It clearly has a question mark at the very end of the sentence, therefore it is a question.
You know, just like if there's a vulnerability in Google Desktop and it runs on Windows, it must clearly be Microsoft's fault, since they allow companies to develop for Windows.
I for one Welcome our new Touchscreen enabled Linux using Grandmother overlords.
:).
. I've always wanted to say that
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
There are a lot of factory shop floors that could benefit from cheap touch screen input to Linux boxes.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Does it really have anything to do with Linux? Wouldn't the touchscreen work just as well under another operating system?
This'd probably be good for older people who lack the mouse skills to get interested in computers. I've watched older folks be frustrated with not being able to click something and just give up without experiencing the functionality of a computer. Young kids as well, although they learn new skills easier so this isn't as much of a barrier. (yes, lack of motor skills plays a role but there isn't too much a kid that age can do on a computer except play the newest edition of Blue's Clues). I'm not sure how much it would catch on in the mainstream, because mice tend to be more accurate, but I can see this as good for those who can't use mice yet. Of course as soon as Linux does it Microsoft will too and claim they had it first, but whatever so long as it enables more people to enhance their lives using computers. Now, how much of an enhancement using Windows is is debatable....
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You could use the cheap PSOne screen+touch screen as a control panel for a mythTV box.
Add a second card to run the PSOne lcd and your main card for the video out.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Touchscreens are only useful when they are on handheld devices. For your average home computer, they make no real sense. For one thing, a desktop pc will always have it's screen perpendicular to the hands natural orientation. That creates unnecessary strain. Another thing is that touching doesn't work well with the office metaphor to which most os, including linux, adhere. The ideal touch interface would have a flat screen embedded face up or maybe at a 35 angle in a table. It could have a square section representing your out/in box, a list of icons on the side representing such things as calendar or notes, etc. Think how easy it would be to have ebooks or architectural schematics on an entire desktop. Of course this would probably require some sort of cheap e-paper, but I think the possibilities are endless.
Am I just missing it or does it not mention at all how the PS1 screen magically becomes a touch screen?
I am Batman?
I have a PSOne LCD screen and as far as I amaware it does not have any touch screen functioanlity, only display and sound. I have hacked mine up already and since many Nvidia cards do not have the right type of VGA sync signal I use the S-VIDEO TV out of my Nvidia card instead. If you run with TV out then select the native resolution of the pannel (320x240) as your TV res mode it is pixel perfect. Please could someone correct me if I am wrong about the touch screen functionailty of the Psone LCD screen?
"Historically, the lack of friendly interfaces has been an obstacle to making Linux a commercially viable product for end users, but with available GUIs, that's yesterday's news"
It might be yesterday's news, but that isn't to say that it's less current today. Try making sense of the clipboard in apps on the linux platform:
First test:
- copy text containing 'Windows characters' (eg: stupid quotation marks - 'long' dash)
- try to paste into gnome-terminal
-> does nothing, which would be even worse for people who don't understand the issues around Windows characters (why can't it just filter the characters?)
Second test:
- copy text in gnome-terminal or gedit
- close the window
- try pasting somewhere
-> doesn't work (the clipboard data has disappeared)
They're just off-the-cuff examples of usability problems in a linux platform, and they are neither user- nor idiot-friendly. I'm on my gentoo workstation at work at the moment but am pretty sure Badger suffers identical problems.
Believe with me, my saplings.
The more the article emphasizes Linux "ease of use" or "desktop readiness", the higher the likelihood that a user will be hand-editing X config files.
Is it just me, or did the author fail completly to specify exactly what brand & model touchscreen he used for the PSOne lcd?
Historically, the lack of friendly interfaces has been an obstacle to making Linux® a commercially viable product for end users, but with available GUIs, that's yesterday's news.
indeed, now that Linux has a GUI, all usability issues have been solved!
Historically, the lack of friendly interfaces has been an obstacle to making Linux® a commercially viable product for end users, but with available GUIs, that's yesterday's news.
This sounds a lot like (and is about as accurate as) Bush on the U.S.S. Lincoln claiming "Mission Accomplished."
From TFA:
/today/ except for one thing. The primary purpose of my home PC is entertainment. Until I can run my games on it, and I'm talking maintstream-buy-at-Walmart games, it's just never going to happen for me.
"Historically, the lack of friendly interfaces has been an obstacle to making Linux® a commercially viable product for end users..."
I would switch to Linux on my home PC
I want to be on the Linux bandwagon in a big way. I'd switch instantly. But that is the showstopper for me.
Steve
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
Could IBM please install this gimmick on some of their xSeries servers... they could then be sold as "the xSeries for Linux, with cool touch display".
...and now we are talking IBM and Linux: We still need a Lotus Notes Client for Linux, pls!!
Yes, I know it runs fine on wine... and so do I but my wife prefere me in sober condition.
At IBM, only old people use touch screens to control robot overlords. Everyone else just lets their Beowulf cluster do it.
given the amount of /.ers who were stating quite vehemently their intent to never buy any Sony products ever a couple of weeks back [Slashdot, passim].
I've been working with the Nokia 770 (http://www.nokiausa.com/770) and it's a nice small wireless (802.11b) ARM PC running Linux. It has a 800x400 touch screen that I'm comfortable with. It has a streaming music app, email, a browser (Opera) and a couple of other apps on it as well as storage for adding more. I plan on using it for my HA interface (running http://www.misterhouse.com/) so the browser is important. So far it works rather well and beats bringing a book into the bathroom for reading. :-) This will be used to replace my my 3COM Audrey, which is hardwired. If they can get the price down I think this device has a chance.
Neil Cherry - Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
As much as I think IBM should just compile Notes with the WineLib (they already run Notes on Wine internally), I don't expect it to happen. Back in the 4.6 days, R5 was promised to be a complete rewrite of Notes with every component being a Java applet. This would have made Notes a write once, run anywhere application. (even in a browser) Well, Java didn't pan out as expected, and Lotus pulled back on the cross platformness of their client.
*****I know that Java has come a long way. I am speaking historically.
Well, I believe that when IBM made another push for the the Notes client rewrite in Java, they promised less and coded more. They knew that a complete rewrite was a HUGE job, so they started Workplace. (Now called the Workplace Managed Client) It is being released for Linux, and has a Notes Client plugin. So Notes will be availible for Linux, it will just be called Workplace.
In Soviet Russia screens touch you...
I recently tried and failed to add a touchscreen to my media server. The stumbling block was finding a way to have a simultaneous xservers (Ubuntu Breezy x.org 6.8) running on different video cards. No matter what I do, only one will be active at a time (one per virtual console), and I'm forced to switch between them with the Alt-Fkeys.
A little searching found the ancient Backstreet Ruby project, but there doesn't seem to be a way to do it with a modern kernel and xserver.
Anyone managed to accomplish this recently?
Actually, a touchscreen is also very useful on a wall-mounted display, like one for a home or commercial building automation control system. And Linux could make a fine platform for that purpose.
...and throw your money on these linux guys http://damnsmalllinux.org/store/TFT_LCD? After you're done, THEN you decide whether the car or the house gets the lil box...
With all that said, the only thing keeping the masses from converting to linux is a touch screen? Does this magical touch screen make compiling programs from a command prompt easier?
When the original poster doesn't even bother to RTFA.
If you actually read the article, it becomes painfully clear that there is no "PSOne touchscreen" - The PSOne display is simply a cheap small display that he is placing behind a touchscreen that didn't come built in to a display. He does not make a SINGLE mention as to exactly what model of touchscreen he used, nor where to get it, and there is nothing preventing you from getting a touchscreen large enough to put on a normal LCD monitor (or a CRT for that matter), other than possibly cost. (He does mention the brand indirectly, apparently the touchscreens are made by eGalax, although looking at eGalax's website gives me the impression that they only make controller ICs for touch screens, not complete touchscreen units. They also do not have any U.S. based distributors listed.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
ADC also carried the power for the display. Having analog+dvi+usb+power on one connector really cut down on cable clutter. Even Apple's 17" CRT was powered by the ADC connector!
But it was hell for the graphics card! Apple had to add a card edge power and usb connector just past the end of the AGP connector on its graphics cards, meaning not only did they have to have their own firmware and video connector for the ATI and NVIDIA cards they used, but also their own special printed circuit board to route the power and USB to the ADC connector as well. BTW, the ADC->VGA adaptors were pretty common, ADC macs used to ship with such an adapter and they sold new for $10 - $30, it's just a little thing that routes the analog RGBHV pins from the ADC connector to a VGA connector, much like the "Mac"->VGA adapters back when Apple used DB15 for video.
Apple ditched ADC about two years ago when they switched to DVI for their aluminum skinned LCD monitors... more specifically, dual link (DDL) DVI to suppor the resolution of their 30" monitor (ADC only supported single link DVI).
This wasn't the first time Steve Jobs tried this, back in 1988 his NeXT computers used a single cable to carry power, video, audio, and keyboard/mouse data to the snazzy black monitor. This became a headache when NeXT went color, requiring a combination speaker box and splitter cable.
I'm thinking... combine this with a nano-itx board - large HD and you got yourself a nice little server.. possibly even putting the parts into a hollowed out PS1
I, for one, welcome our new PlayStation LCD touch screen-controlled robot overlords?
I don't. The single biggest problem with this project is that it requires a Sony product, and I aint gonna buy Sony products no more. I'll be doing my best to discourage others from buying them too.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
While this article may bring some new ideas (hoping for it to be the panecea for converts is kinda silly) a very similar article was out in Feb 2005: Hacking a PSOne Screen
fak3r.com
No, you aren't?
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
Why bother when there are so many Point Of Sale terminals out there already? Most of these are made by well known companies such as the Entity Now Known As Lenovo, EPSON and SQUiRREL, to name a few 'household' brands... If you need to get an engineer out on-site to re-image the H.D.D., fix the till drawer or get that screen recalibrated then you can find a third party able to do this for the customer and charge them a service contract with call-out fees, continual upgrades and all the other moneyspinners.
It is all there for you already with a P.O.S. terminal that is just a PC, with a touchscreen and the keyboard not normally plugged in. Networking is built in and I doubt there is much to stop you upgrading the Windows Whatever to the custom application of your chosing on your preferred operating system. With the units made by the company now known as Lenovo you might even be able to go the OS/2 Warp way...
Touchscreens are not much fun though. Try pressing the start button on a 10" touch display, navigating to Control Panel and changing something. Very fiddly. You have to get a child with small fingers to do it, assuming you have 'banana' style hands... I haven't worked out how to do the right clicks yet, I cannot see how you get to the calibration for different fingers.
All touchscreens get filthy really quickly. You need to have a supply of 'wet-wipes' on hand, particularly after a KFC eating meat-eater has had a prod. P.O.S. terminals are generally more robust than regular PC's. The Lenovo-style units would probably survive a Karcher clean, but it might be best to power off first, just to be on the safe side.
If you are looking to get a reconditioned POS unit for the home at bargain prices, go for the cash drawer and have fun setting 'cron' jobs that keep you and the rest of the world including potential burglars out of the 'safe'. You could put your savings in there until 'retirement' or your stash until next weekend. Most units can be bolted to something that is bolted to something concrete, so if you want the perfect setup for a server that is very difficult to steal then P.O.S. has it all.
To complement the P.O.S. unit you also need to get a printer that does kitchen orders, till receipts and such like. Who wants a huge slab of A4 when you can print off what you need from one convenient roll, cut to size by the inbuilt printer mechanism? These nifty printers are easy to get parts and paper for, and none of them take up the whole desk.
If there was a viable option for a touchscreen to emulate a mouse. I would convery mt car PC to linux based. I would LOVE to have a small distro load to RAM and run from there as I'm running a ~900 Mhz EPIA w/a 4200 RPM HDD and this would (or could and should) boost performance. A dream becoming a bit closer to reality. Oh, and it's nice for those Knoppix Kiosk lovers.
Why not use an old Palm for a touchscreen to provide buttons and display for a myth TV box?
I have a few of the PSone type touchscreens (the Sony one is the nicest, mine are generics with an inferior OEM panel) but have no idea where to source a touchscreen film/digitizer and controller.
I know they make 7" and 8" LCD panels with touchscreen, but I don't want to pay that kind of money for an integrated product. Any ideas?
Well the good thing about that post is that now rather than having to skip over 4 lame jokes i only have to scroll past 1 very lame joke.
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Most State lottery terminals in Minnesota are touch-screen boxen (x86, if you were wondering) running Monta Vista Linux (at least when I worked at a gas station a few years back).
Wow, great! The thing will apparently even control interfaces for household robots! Boy, that's a compelling application. I mean, we've all been waiting for household robots since maybe 1935 or so. It's now clear that the major holdup has been the availability of touch screens that can control the interfaces for these robots. Terrific! Now we can all have, and indeed, control, our household robots. I think I'll name mine "Rosie."
Now then, what does a guy have to do to get a flying car?
You're looking at $250 to $500 for a 7" 16:9 LCD with USB touchscreen. That's not toooooo bad.
You call me, or write, and I'll likely be able to explain anything about touchscreens and/or point of sale that you feel you need to know. I can stand yet another Slashdot 'article' and comments featuring end-to-end ignorance and frustration about touchscreens, GUI's and vertical market software but when ignorance about point of sale is added to the mix then the situation becomes so ridiculous as to be dangerous and the professional intervention option has to be invoked. For people who are not confused or frustrated about both touchscreens and point of sale, just add 'touchscreen' or 'touch screen' to google's custom news search for relevant news.
It is Microsoft's fault. Not for allowing people to develop for Windows, but for creating closed-source software. Until the early 1970s, almost all software came in source code form {every computer was different enough that it had to} and vendors actually listened to suggestions from customers.
In 1974, or maybe it was '76 -- anyway, it was while Linus was still a nipper -- Bill Gates got a bit annoyed because people were sharing a program he had written. He thought they were stealing from him {a lot of people would say that failure to share is a form of stealing} and wrote a rather well-known open letter. Unfortunately for everyone else, nobody took Gates seriously and he was not given the DGK he so richly deserved.
If there was no closed-source software there would be much, much less malware. It really is that simple. Closed-source benefits only a few and disadvantages almost everybody. More good than harm would be done by outlawing it.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
You could possibly snag one starting at $159, 7", 8", or 9" touchscreens on eBay. They're mostly made in China, so don't go looking for name brands, just OEM stuff. THe plain old VGA connector ones, no fancy DVI, maybe no USB. If your graphics card has that TV-out, you could have multimonitor. I was looking at cheap alternatives at the time.
This may not be practical for a primary display (resolution is too low). However, we're talking linux here. Pop in a cheap $30 ISA video card and use this as a secondary input.
At home, this could be a control panel for MythTV, your music player, Audacity, etc... I know a guy who uses something very similar to control effects for his guitar (which is plugged into the linux box).
In the office, this could display navigate email/calendar/etc..., while your primary display contains your work.
In either environment, you could use the secondary video touchscreen for video Skype, leaving your primary display free for other tasks.
Admittedly, the article seems to indicate that this is being used as a primary display for a computer installed in a car. This seems like a good purpose for it. Now if I could find a good GPS/Map program for linux...
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- 7 TFT-LCD Monitor
- High Resolution 640*480 TFT LCD Display
- 16:9 Viewing Aspect Ratio
- PAL/NTSC Auto Select
- With USB Connector
- With VGA Connector
- Headphone Output
- Built-In Speaker
- Universal Mounting Bracket for Monitor
- Full Function Remote Control with on Screen Display
- Power Source DC 12V
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