PlayStation Touch Screen for Your Linux Box 136
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."
Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:1)
It can increase the number of software developers who work on touch-screen interfaces.
Oh, I don't know (Score:2, Funny)
. I've always wanted to say that
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:2)
I don't think he was advocating that Grandma do this herself... this is something for technical nerd type people to do and sell to Grandma.
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:5, Insightful)
So yes, this is a huge help. Developers don't just write office software after all.
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, similar projects have been doing releases constantly and attracted a developer following of that the enlightenment community could only dream of.
Please don't understand me wrong. I am not bashing rasterman or the Enlightenment project. It just seems to me that the E. proje
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:1)
Re:Obstacle to making Linux commercially viable (Score:1)
Erm... I already have a touchscreen working on a Linux box.
There's nothing to it. The screens are widely available (look on eBay) and it uses a USB interface. The driver's in the kernel already. All I had to do was to flip the X and Y axes in xorg.conf, because the driver doesn't match my model precisely.
I've also tried it on Windows 2000, and it wasn't so easy to get working. But you knew that already!
So what do you do at IBM? (Score:5, Funny)
Man, what a job.
Re:So what do you do at IBM? (Score:2)
"The cranky user: Macro viruses" (developerWorks, August 2002) explains the modeline option in early versions of the UNIX editor vi.
Now that's real nice stuff that you are reading there
Hmmm... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, and it created all hell if you wanted to use one of apple's (very nice) LCD panels on a PC (not to mention that the early cinema displays & DVI adaptors didn't conform to the proper DVI spec)
And thus, I think all current-model macs ship with DVI ports instead. Creating a new ADC device would be completely pointless
power requirements, ADC adaptors and such (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:power requirements, ADC adaptors and such (Score:2)
Think of the possibilities (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Think of the possibilities (Score:1)
Re:Think of the possibilities (Score:1, Informative)
sigh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:sigh (Score:2)
I can't go into my ideas right now (which I know is not very helpful, but I've got work to do), but used as an extension to a standard computer setup I can imagine all sorts of uses. For one thing, move the functionality of all those little tray-apps into a small touchscreen next to the keyboard. Volume for Winamp, Email notifications, appointment notifications, IM messages, et
Not much of a connection... (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Not much of a connection... (Score:2)
Nobody mentioned this so far...
have I gone nuts?
Re:Not much of a connection... (Score:2)
I scanned the article for playstation, not psone... I never even knew there was an LCD for the psone... have only seen one psone in my life.
sorry..
back to the glass pipe.
or just buy a 7" touchscreen (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Re:or just buy a 7" touchscreen (Score:2, Funny)
Hmmm, $1.00, or $150.... I've made my choice
Re:or just buy a 7" touchscreen (Score:1)
Re:or just buy a 7" touchscreen (Score:1)
Re:or just buy a 7" touchscreen (Score:1)
Re:or just buy a 7" touchscreen (Score:2)
Decisions, decisions...
help support an evil **AA corporate phisher (SONY) by buying ANY of their products (new or used), or buy a touchscreen from a company that already thinks GNU/linux is "cool"?
Why would any rational GNU/linux user, already considered to be a F/OSS fringe element "communist" "hacker/terrorist", consider supporting part of the evil (corporate) monopolist empire by supporting SONY?
I can understand IBM's ambivalence regarding their association with SONY, versus their support of F/OSS,
With MacOSX? (Score:1)
Touchscreens holding Linux back? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Touchscreens holding Linux back? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Touchscreens holding Linux back? (Score:1)
Re:Touchscreens holding Linux back? (Score:1)
Re:Touchscreens holding Linux back? (Score:1)
Re:Touchscreens holding Linux back? (Score:1)
What about industry??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Linux? (Score:1)
Grandma (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Grandma (Score:2)
Won't have to work hard to back up that claim [microsoft.com].
Re:Grandma (Score:1)
Re:Grandma (Score:2, Insightful)
For the old folks, I think the idea of a touchscreen-driven web browsing device has legs, and Linux would be the perfect base for something like that (as long as nobody ever saw it, a la TiVo). If y
Re:Grandma (Score:1)
You were a bit vague about what you mean by young kids, but I feel obligated to point out that (some) kids aged four or five can use computers to a greater degree than many adults can imagine.
For example, my school district [cantonusd.org] was fortunate enough to have a special pr
kind of interesting. (Score:3, Insightful)
Add a second card to run the PSOne lcd and your main card for the video out.
Re:kind of interesting. (Score:1)
MythTV 18.1 adds a few mouse functions, but the primary interface navigation is still keyboard only. The GTK widgets aren't written to accept mouse events and need a total rewrite, from what I've read.
Re:kind of interesting. (Score:2)
Re:kind of interesting. (Score:2)
The problem is, say your touch screen has big huge play/rewind buttons. While your playing a video, how do you send those keystrokes to myth? When the menu's come up, do you display everything on one screen and mirror? I haven't
Re:kind of interesting. (Score:2)
Interesting, but not practical (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Interesting, but not practical (Score:1)
Actually, practical and interesting (Score:1)
Re:Interesting, but not practical (Score:1)
practical... (Score:2)
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 environmen
The PsOne LCD dose NOT have a touch screen? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The PsOne LCD dose NOT have a touch screen? (Score:2, Informative)
Interfaces are still inadequate (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Interfaces are still inadequate (Score:2)
1) Copy
2) Paste
Windows:
1) Copy
2) Are you sure you want to not replace but also overwrite the existing content?
3) Reread and then analyze the dialog box for exactly what it doesisn't want you to do.
4) Hesitate
5) Paste and hope you interpreted the dialog box correctly.
[ Try it: Open a document in Excel 2003 and try to save it in a Tab delimited (industry standard) format. "Do you not want to not save this document and lose important features? -> Yes, No, "Learn More about the be
Re:Interfaces are still inadequate (Score:2)
I would say that windows has the first problem too, for example, not handling line breaks without CR and LF when dealing with text from a unix box.
Re:Interfaces are still inadequate (Score:2)
Aah you're correct and I should have qualified. You're talking about the *other* buffer. [1] Try copying and pasting using the hotkeys. In gedit that's ctrl+c.
Of course - in gnome-terminal it's ctrl+shift+c (ctrl+c does something else). I wish they'd standardised gnome on clipboard operations using WindowsKey + c, WindowsKey + x, etc. [2] Alternatively they could have used ctrl+shift as the meta for all clipboard operations everywhere.
Re:Interfaces are still inadequate (Score:2)
but anyway the exact cause of the problem is largely irrelevent. the fact is that text shows in one app you copy it to the clipboard paste it somewhere else and it doesn't appear at all is extremely bad! Its the sort of thing that linux fanboys put up with but t
Katana's Law of Linux Articles (Score:1, Insightful)
Touchscreen used (Score:1)
GUIs (Score:2)
indeed, now that Linux has a GUI, all usability issues have been solved!
Mission Accomplished! (Score:4, Funny)
This sounds a lot like (and is about as accurate as) Bush on the U.S.S. Lincoln claiming "Mission Accomplished."
Re:Mission Accomplished! (Score:1)
The #1 thing holding back *nix from home PCs... (Score:2, Insightful)
"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
Re:The #1 thing holding back *nix from home PCs... (Score:1)
Or, if you just wanna play, download Knoppix [knopper.net] and be a Linux user tonight!
IBM, Linux, gimmicks and real needs... (Score:1)
...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.
Notes On Linux... (Score:2)
*****I know that Java has come a long way. I am speaking hist
Interesting to see the responses here (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Interesting to see the responses here (Score:1)
Re:Interesting to see the responses here (Score:1)
1.) Show me an example of a specific slashdot user who vowed to never again buy another sony product after the rootkit debacle, and now intends on buying a PS1 lcd based on this article. You'll then be free to call that person, and only that person, a hypocrite.
2.) Realize that
I, for one, would like to see a
A bit expensive but ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A bit expensive but ... (Score:2)
Hope you can spray Lysol on it afterwards. Otherwise
Speaking of odd bathroom entertainment, I guess I shouldn't make too much fun of you: I went into a fairly trendy bar a few days ago in DC, and in the men's rest room there were televisions mounted on pretty much every surface that you'd be looking at as you were doing your various bathroom activi
Re:A bit expensive but ... (Score:1)
Smirnoff (Score:4, Funny)
Simultaneous xservers on linux? (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
Re:Simultaneous xservers on linux? (Score:2)
Now, you get two *displays* doing this, not one big screen, or a display with two screens.
All I had to two was fire up a different X Server, with a different X config file. Oh, and I had to set the keyboard and mouse on one of them to non-existant.. I used x2x to get mouse and keyboard on the other monitor.
Why not spare yourself the agony (Score:2, Interesting)
You know it's sad (Score:4, Insightful)
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.)
PS1 Server? (Score:1)
Already covered back in February (Score:2)
Linux Based Car PC (Score:1)
Does anyone actually know of a cheap touchscreen? (Score:2)
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?
Re:Does anyone actually know of a cheap touchscree (Score:1)
Already done (Score:1)
Even household robots! (Score:2)
Now then, what does a guy have to do to get a flying car?
Try this instead $250 (Score:2)
- 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
Re:Cool (Score:1)
Re:Cool (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Cool (Score:1)
Re:Cool (Score:2)
Re:Cool (Score:1)
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
Re:Cool (Score:1)
Re:Cool (Score:1)
Re:Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Option: Siemens simpad (Score:5, Informative)
Hint: hit the "HTML" link on the right side to get text you can copy & paste easily. Just paste it in, post in mode "HTML Formatted", and you're good to go and you've avoided this problem.
Also note that you can "lock out" comments if you're logged in to Anti-Slash, so people can't just search the DB for Qtopia to see where you copied your comment from. (In this case, it wouldn't have helped, since I Googled first.)
Thanks for trying!
Re:Option: Siemens simpad (Score:2)
Re:Option: Siemens simpad (Score:2)
Re:What is wrong with EPSON and IBM P.O.S. termina (Score:1)