PocketPC as a Touch Screen Replacement - Page 3

nkotch · 05-05-2006, 01:26 AM

Yea, so far this little via board has handled everything I throw at it.... Win XP, Road Runner, GPS while playing mp3's, DIVX vids, DVD, etc... I'll probably be pushing my luck though to do Konfabulator on it as well.

But yeah, this could be a pretty cool front end in and of itself. I've gotten used to my 7" screen though so if I did something it would be to use the PDA as a "remote" device or status remote.

Genesisfactor · 05-05-2006, 02:09 AM

hehe, that was the purpose of hte project

.

Anwyays, i wonder if anyone woudl be intrepid enough to make a widget based PPC or CPC front end. I mean, you've got almost everything you need right there for free, from remote players to quicklaunch stuff.

sama · 05-05-2006, 03:15 AM

check this out

btw genesis, I did want to have a ppc in support of my carputer. the idea was to have the ppc a replacement for the touchscreen only.

I'm currently looking at a way to get the most out of both worlds so this find may help in doing just that. through some scripting, I should be able to get tomtom to display on the touchscreen using soti pocket controller. I'm working on that but I'm still not sure how to send sound from the ppc to the pc (preferably without using the headphones socket)

Genesisfactor · 05-05-2006, 03:48 AM

i was thinking that using htis ans an extrenal monitor, you could control a bulk of your music and files on there, and then, if you need a video, you can use Sideshow to display it full screen. The widgets tend to not stay on top, so i mean, its like an active desktop that's pretty active

TSC hasn't done me wrong yet, other than the stupid sound issue. once i sort that out, i'll be in smooth sailing.

FOR ME, nothing to do wiht your project, and maybe this is just a suggestion, I may be scaling this portion of the project back in the fully replace touchscreen" way for three reasons.

1), a 7" screen isn't big enough for me, and after seeing hte place where i mounted the PPC, ther'e NO WAY i can read that, AT ALL. Its just too far away. Plus accurate button pressing with anything shot of a sytlus is impossible unless you have big buttons on the desktop.

2) At the NYC CarPC meet, i saw Alti's sony ericson at work as a PC remote and it did a WONDERUFL job. Also, saw his amazingly big 10.4" screen and i was like

3) most importantly, the video playback is kinda going to suck on a PPC, no matter what you do. I have a DVD player and people are going to want to see it in action. I mean, yes, some viewers are better than others, but in the end, you'll settle to stream the videos and that is not going to sit well with me.

That is why i am going to widget it and forget it. I mean, hell, i have the cable, i can get the software, why not? Even with remote control, i can always later swtich to VNC or TSC and contorl the screen itself.

So other than being a media remote control and giving me a heads up on the what's going on, plus another way to control the computer and pass along control to the guys in the rear seat (esp since my annoying little brother will DEMAND to play with the radio...as will some of my friends, so i'm not bugged or the person shotgun isn't bugged) i mean, it wil serve its ultimate goal, whcih is viewing and control. I can't be happier with that.
BTW,

that's the link i posted up eariler today that i got from my firend

. I've already added a few requests to innogear or whoever as well as on Y!WE and Aximsite. I sused this sn, so please, if you can, join spaceskater and i in our quest to do this

. That invitation goes to all of you!

Genesisfactor · 05-23-2006, 05:00 PM

hey sama, i know we;re eg\dging away from the complete experence, but are you going to use the widgets as your display or are you going to use TSC/VNC? I mean we threw around ideas and experiences, but we never got down to what we were going to do

. Personally, i think, if you get Resco File Explorer and map a network drive full of PPC size vids that would work great too. I mean, its going to be your front end, so yeah, i'm guessing that you should use thew PPC's vid player to handle movies and be done with it. Its just an easy solution til you can or someone else can program a better on.

I mean, you CAN use TSC in one window and movie player in the next

sama · 05-25-2006, 07:41 AM

hey, sorry it's taken so long, I've been busy doing other stuff!

anyway, I'm still not sure exactly what i'll be using the pocketpc for in the car. There these possiblities now to consider:

side window - an extension to the carptuer's display

pocket controller - nice tool to remote control ppc from pc (so phone calls can be made from pc)

tsc - to control pc from ppc

widgets - to use in conjuction with side window to control and manipulate pc with nice large buttons etc

bluetooth headset proflie on pc - to make phone calls using car audio system

multimedia playing from ppc - headphone socket to pc line in

voice command from ppc

my main issues at the moment is how do we string it all together? Ideally, I'd like to use my ppc-phone for phone functions. use voice command to dial numbers. would be nice to trigger through steering wheel or something where any pc volume is cut out until command on ppc happens.

any thoughts? ideas?

Genesisfactor · 06-05-2006, 11:08 PM

i was thinking betwween a sidewindow iwth widgets (like a nice system check thing) to a remote screen that can be passed around of the main screen. I STILL can't get it to play media files over the computer cause it keeps sending the sound to the PPC and not keeping it on the computer. I stopped playing wiht it eventually. Then it reset itself.

I would mold a cradle in my car before stickking it as line in. I mean, there's enough voice control software out there for free on this forum that we don't need to use the PPC as a ntermediate.

Remote control, Rudeo Control was something i was playing with. It uses windows media player though, and i never got it to complie my 5K song playlist

.

But i think the coolest thing could be a side project for the computer vision you're doing...although it will take ALOT of work: use the PPC to contorl your car and view the world fomr the cameras remotely.

Back to reality, you can use TSC seperately while using the widgets window. I'm not sure how the pc and ppc will like controlling eachother at the same time though, so since you have a phone ppc, i would go the computer contorlling the PPC and the PPC as a remote for playlists and songs idea. that way the computer is still dominately in control.

Sorry for the scattered thoughts...i'm not feeling too well righ tnow

OriginalNick2 · 06-16-2006, 07:18 PM

What about a wrapper to incorporate Mp3 playback and tomtom, since running them both is a pain in the arse.

Genesisfactor · 06-17-2006, 05:04 PM

that takes a lot of design. Right now, i'm playing with AIVMS. There's a bit of on-computer set up (nothing TCS or VNC can't handle) and then its smooth sailing from there. I'll let you now my findings later as they come. So far, Mechanic, the developer, as been EXTREMELY helpful and responsive.

Put it this way: bug fixes can be same day affairs.

(atleast on the desktop version)

OriginalNick2 · 07-24-2006, 07:00 PM

Hows tricks??

Any progresss on this yet>?

Genesisfactor · 07-24-2006, 07:05 PM

hey. For me, yes, although my project is carless. AIVMS is great. Its only lacking is voice control. I am also playing with media portal with the MPB lue client which makes the pocket PC control the music capabilities. However, both just control music and are techinically just remote controls for the PC.

Honestly, VNC is the best all around control and then you need to stream your videos to the PPC or store them on the device itself.

Sama, how have you been doing? What of computer vision?

sama · 07-24-2006, 09:01 PM

hey dude

I'm good, I was wondering about you also when I saw this thread.

nothing of vision these days, I'm working on a front end at the moment. at the same time I'm busy with my parents whom just fled from the war in Lebanon.

hectic times, but the carpc continues!

OriginalNick2 · 07-26-2006, 07:06 PM

Anybody know how i can sit in TOMTOM and play MP3's with some degree of control IE skip forward, pause, reduce vol

Voice control is out due to being in a land rover! cant even hear myself think!

sama · 07-26-2006, 07:51 PM

use a player like "pocket player" that can map keys even when it's in background

OriginalNick2 · 07-30-2006, 10:42 AM

ahhh thats what that does!!!

Works ok but runs low on memory and ends either pocket player or tomtom.

Why tomtom wont do this for pda's is beyond me - they do it for the GO's.

Any way of increasing the memory.

All my music is on CF card (2gb) and progs run of a SD 1GB card, hardly anything stored on the actual PDA......

any ideas appreciated - thanks for help so far.

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