ardTouch

Make a side touch-screen for the PC. NOT animated (at least in the initial project), it will use buttons a la iPhone and allow user to do some quick-launch operations ... and more.

Hall of fame:

Article in Eleki-jack (I look sooo stupid on this picture) http://shop.cqpub.co.jp/hanbai/books/MCQ/MCQZ201101.html
The maker's page http://www.liquidware.com/shop/show/TSL/TouchShield%20Slide

Nice other projects resembling or related:

Ion's digital remote control http://www.grozeaion.com/high-speed-photography/gvi-slide.html

Current version	0.5
Current version release date	19/07/2009
Current version release	ardTouch to PC working ok Software inside much cleaner and easier to develop Every button classes are defined, auto location, click detection and forward to PC the 1 char unique code TouchSlide sends 1 char to Arduino, and Arduino uses ARCPO to forward a clean packet to PC ardTouch connector (PC side) interpretes all "run a command" type message Commands can be stored in a XML file for easily make your own Communication problems fixed with ARCPO v0.3 Mail unread info displayed on the screen Screensaver implemented with wakeup on message arrival Uses library TouchSlide_Ext with big rewriting of the code (most of the gadget code moved to that library)
Current version bin/src	Binary PC : ardTouchConnector.bin.1.1.0.1.zip Arduino : Slide_Arduino2PC.pde TouchSlide : Slide_ARDTouch.0.5.zip Lib : TouchSlideExt.v0.1.zip ARCPO_Lib.v0.3.zip

Source code, explanation, binaries

For the C# command interpreter ardTouchConnector see its dedicated page.
... all this is on a dedicated page here ardTouch codes.

Videos & pictures

The full list of images and videos are here...

In its aluminium case.

Material

TouchShield Slide http://www.liquidware.com/shop/show/TSL/TouchShield%20Slide
Arduino 2009 (or other, but 2009 is my favorite for now)
the usual : iron, solder, leds, copper, finger, sweat, ...

Feature list

Feature	Comment	Priority	Version Impl	other
Display buttons	Buttons are displayed and arranged like on a iPhone (landscape position). On touch, button gets "activated" (lightened/box?) and a command is sent to the Arduino that forwards it to the PC via USB that is interpreted by the ardTouch Connector on the PC	High	0.1
Multiple panel	Buttons are groupped in panel and user can switch panel. One panel for work, one for music, one is a calculator ...	Med	0.5
User defined buttons	User can choose his buttons per panel (hard to implement, expecially the icons upload)	Low
Mail/info bar	Like in the ardNotifier have a bar that displays latest received mail and unread mail	Low	0.3
Mood leds	With a RGB led, implement a "mood" that could be customized per user or per message. ...ok, it's bling bling	Low
Calendar	Add a button that displays the current calendar (service will have to tell the date to the box once in a while). I need to dig out my algorithm for calendar, but I wrote it somewhere... (requires panel implementation)	Med
Calculator	Add a button to switch to calculator mode (requires panel implementation)	Low
Temperature	Use some analog port to read outside temperature (stick the component outside the box !)	Low
Boxing	Find a nice box for baby and if possible don't cut it too poorly for I won't have many failure options	Med	0.2
Media player	Make a special panel (need the panel evol) to display buttons for WMP commands http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/Vsexpressvb/thread/95dda957-cb8c-4f9a-93a7-ad132b081c7a/ http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/wmp_pinvoke.aspx	Med	1.0.0.1
Screen-saver	Aim to save power ... and not kill the screen with a 24/7 identical display. Different options : the simple turnoff and then on when touched more sexy : black random marching ants	Med	0.3

Issues