Windows 7 Development: Multi-point touch

Overview

Windows 7 enables users to manage applications without using intermediate devices and by touching them with their fingers. This extends the tablet computer's ability to touch pens. Unlike other pointing devices, this new feature enables multiple input events to occur simultaneously at different pointing locations, supporting complex scenarios such as managing applications through ten fingers or multiple concurrent users. However, to successfully implement this functionality, we must adjust the user interface and behavior of the application to support this new input pattern.

The goal of this hands-on experiment (hands-on lab, HOL) is to upgrade a simple mouse based image manipulation application into a modern application that supports multi-touch, similar to Microsoft Surface behavior.

Figure 1

Multi-Touch Applications enabled

Goal

This hands-on experiment will learn how to manage multi-touch events, including:

• Understanding the meaning of manipulating multiple objects simultaneously

• Check the presence and readiness of multi-touch hardware

• Implement multi-touch events in the WPF 3.5SP1

• Use multi-touch events with built-in WPF stylus events

• Use operations (manipulation) and inertia (inertia) processors