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| 1 | Multi-touch (MT) Protocol | ||
| 2 | ------------------------- | ||
| 3 | Copyright (C) 2009 Henrik Rydberg <rydberg@euromail.se> | ||
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | Introduction | ||
| 7 | ------------ | ||
| 8 | |||
| 9 | In order to utilize the full power of the new multi-touch devices, a way to | ||
| 10 | report detailed finger data to user space is needed. This document | ||
| 11 | describes the multi-touch (MT) protocol which allows kernel drivers to | ||
| 12 | report details for an arbitrary number of fingers. | ||
| 13 | |||
| 14 | |||
| 15 | Usage | ||
| 16 | ----- | ||
| 17 | |||
| 18 | Anonymous finger details are sent sequentially as separate packets of ABS | ||
| 19 | events. Only the ABS_MT events are recognized as part of a finger | ||
| 20 | packet. The end of a packet is marked by calling the input_mt_sync() | ||
| 21 | function, which generates a SYN_MT_REPORT event. The end of multi-touch | ||
| 22 | transfer is marked by calling the usual input_sync() function. | ||
| 23 | |||
| 24 | A set of ABS_MT events with the desired properties is defined. The events | ||
| 25 | are divided into categories, to allow for partial implementation. The | ||
| 26 | minimum set consists of ABS_MT_TOUCH_MAJOR, ABS_MT_POSITION_X and | ||
| 27 | ABS_MT_POSITION_Y, which allows for multiple fingers to be tracked. If the | ||
| 28 | device supports it, the ABS_MT_WIDTH_MAJOR may be used to provide the size | ||
| 29 | of the approaching finger. Anisotropy and direction may be specified with | ||
| 30 | ABS_MT_TOUCH_MINOR, ABS_MT_WIDTH_MINOR and ABS_MT_ORIENTATION. Devices with | ||
| 31 | more granular information may specify general shapes as blobs, i.e., as a | ||
| 32 | sequence of rectangular shapes grouped together by an | ||
| 33 | ABS_MT_BLOB_ID. Finally, the ABS_MT_TOOL_TYPE may be used to specify | ||
| 34 | whether the touching tool is a finger or a pen or something else. | ||
| 35 | |||
| 36 | |||
| 37 | Event Semantics | ||
| 38 | --------------- | ||
| 39 | |||
| 40 | The word "contact" is used to describe a tool which is in direct contact | ||
| 41 | with the surface. A finger, a pen or a rubber all classify as contacts. | ||
| 42 | |||
| 43 | ABS_MT_TOUCH_MAJOR | ||
| 44 | |||
| 45 | The length of the major axis of the contact. The length should be given in | ||
| 46 | surface units. If the surface has an X times Y resolution, the largest | ||
| 47 | possible value of ABS_MT_TOUCH_MAJOR is sqrt(X^2 + Y^2), the diagonal. | ||
| 48 | |||
| 49 | ABS_MT_TOUCH_MINOR | ||
| 50 | |||
| 51 | The length, in surface units, of the minor axis of the contact. If the | ||
| 52 | contact is circular, this event can be omitted. | ||
| 53 | |||
| 54 | ABS_MT_WIDTH_MAJOR | ||
| 55 | |||
| 56 | The length, in surface units, of the major axis of the approaching | ||
| 57 | tool. This should be understood as the size of the tool itself. The | ||
| 58 | orientation of the contact and the approaching tool are assumed to be the | ||
| 59 | same. | ||
| 60 | |||
| 61 | ABS_MT_WIDTH_MINOR | ||
| 62 | |||
| 63 | The length, in surface units, of the minor axis of the approaching | ||
| 64 | tool. Omit if circular. | ||
| 65 | |||
| 66 | The above four values can be used to derive additional information about | ||
| 67 | the contact. The ratio ABS_MT_TOUCH_MAJOR / ABS_MT_WIDTH_MAJOR approximates | ||
| 68 | the notion of pressure. The fingers of the hand and the palm all have | ||
| 69 | different characteristic widths [1]. | ||
| 70 | |||
| 71 | ABS_MT_ORIENTATION | ||
| 72 | |||
| 73 | The orientation of the ellipse. The value should describe half a revolution | ||
| 74 | clockwise around the touch center. The scale of the value is arbitrary, but | ||
| 75 | zero should be returned for an ellipse aligned along the Y axis of the | ||
| 76 | surface. As an example, an index finger placed straight onto the axis could | ||
| 77 | return zero orientation, something negative when twisted to the left, and | ||
| 78 | something positive when twisted to the right. This value can be omitted if | ||
| 79 | the touching object is circular, or if the information is not available in | ||
| 80 | the kernel driver. | ||
| 81 | |||
| 82 | ABS_MT_POSITION_X | ||
| 83 | |||
| 84 | The surface X coordinate of the center of the touching ellipse. | ||
| 85 | |||
| 86 | ABS_MT_POSITION_Y | ||
| 87 | |||
| 88 | The surface Y coordinate of the center of the touching ellipse. | ||
| 89 | |||
| 90 | ABS_MT_TOOL_TYPE | ||
| 91 | |||
| 92 | The type of approaching tool. A lot of kernel drivers cannot distinguish | ||
| 93 | between different tool types, such as a finger or a pen. In such cases, the | ||
| 94 | event should be omitted. The protocol currently supports MT_TOOL_FINGER and | ||
| 95 | MT_TOOL_PEN [2]. | ||
| 96 | |||
| 97 | ABS_MT_BLOB_ID | ||
| 98 | |||
| 99 | The BLOB_ID groups several packets together into one arbitrarily shaped | ||
| 100 | contact. This is a low-level anonymous grouping, and should not be confused | ||
| 101 | with the high-level contactID, explained below. Most kernel drivers will | ||
| 102 | not have this capability, and can safely omit the event. | ||
| 103 | |||
| 104 | |||
| 105 | Finger Tracking | ||
| 106 | --------------- | ||
| 107 | |||
| 108 | The kernel driver should generate an arbitrary enumeration of the set of | ||
| 109 | anonymous contacts currently on the surface. The order in which the packets | ||
| 110 | appear in the event stream is not important. | ||
| 111 | |||
| 112 | The process of finger tracking, i.e., to assign a unique contactID to each | ||
| 113 | initiated contact on the surface, is left to user space; preferably the | ||
| 114 | multi-touch X driver [3]. In that driver, the contactID stays the same and | ||
| 115 | unique until the contact vanishes (when the finger leaves the surface). The | ||
| 116 | problem of assigning a set of anonymous fingers to a set of identified | ||
| 117 | fingers is a euclidian bipartite matching problem at each event update, and | ||
| 118 | relies on a sufficiently rapid update rate. | ||
| 119 | |||
| 120 | Notes | ||
| 121 | ----- | ||
| 122 | |||
| 123 | In order to stay compatible with existing applications, the data | ||
| 124 | reported in a finger packet must not be recognized as single-touch | ||
| 125 | events. In addition, all finger data must bypass input filtering, | ||
| 126 | since subsequent events of the same type refer to different fingers. | ||
| 127 | |||
| 128 | The first kernel driver to utilize the MT protocol is the bcm5974 driver, | ||
| 129 | where examples can be found. | ||
| 130 | |||
| 131 | [1] With the extension ABS_MT_APPROACH_X and ABS_MT_APPROACH_Y, the | ||
| 132 | difference between the contact position and the approaching tool position | ||
| 133 | could be used to derive tilt. | ||
| 134 | [2] The list can of course be extended. | ||
| 135 | [3] The multi-touch X driver is currently in the prototyping stage. At the | ||
| 136 | time of writing (April 2009), the MT protocol is not yet merged, and the | ||
| 137 | prototype implements finger matching, basic mouse support and two-finger | ||
| 138 | scrolling. The project aims at improving the quality of current multi-touch | ||
| 139 | functionality available in the synaptics X driver, and in addition | ||
| 140 | implement more advanced gestures. | ||
