Overlay app to detect multitouch (for smart home device) - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
I am planning to use a few of these things for home automation purposes.
I have a prototype installation running using Home Assistant and so far it can do the things that I need. Basically it is currently displaying a Home Assistant dashboard by default on boot and Home Assistant does the rest.
There is just one thing I would like to improve and that is the "regular use case" of a light switch:
So when you enter/leave the room and just touch the device with your hand (like you would when turning on/off a regular european-style light switch), I would like to trigger a certain event.
"touch with your hand" would be a multitouch event with at least two simultaneous touch events.
Do you know of any tool that could handle that?
I already had a look at tasker, but the events I need are not present there.
I was also looking for an "overlay app", but was unsuccessful.
It should also work when the screen is off, so the solution must be able to distinguish if the device was woken up by a single touch or by a multitouch.
Is that even possible?
Thanks for your input,
Morgenstern

Related

[Q] Switching between 4 apps in the car and other environments

What is the fastest and easiest way way to switch between four apps in the car. For example Google Nav, Poweramp, Trapster, and a speedometer app. A wave of the hand would be nice. I have looked at several and used a few. Smart Task Switcher, a reviewer said “Was warned about this app due to access to contacts permissions which dev says is used in China for advertising”. AppSwipe only does two ( the last opened). The “car apps” say nothing about task switching or is it shown in the Youtube videos. It would be nicer if an app would isolate and load these four programs from one key push then allow fast switching. A snap of the fingers would be another way to switch between these four apps. Also, a slideshow type thing of these four apps with the option to stay on the current one showing might be an idea. Or, one app that puts to the front the needed app, like the media player about the first and last 5 seconds of a song, trapster like app that would popup during notifications, navigation about 10 seconds before and after turns, and the speedometer the rest of the time. I'm just thinking out loud. Holding down the home key is not a good fit. Bottom line is I need a better task switcher (not killer) for the auto. An app that would allow me to map a steering wheel button in my 2011 Ford Fusion SEL for task switching would be golden! A friend's suggestion was to get four phones, so that one is already out there.
I tried Car Dock Home v3. It works by using a launcher that uses the back key to return to it's home screen, then another task can be selected via a shortcut. Unfortunately it cancels Google Navigation when the back key is hit to go to CDHv3 home screen. This would have been a better solution as it takes two key presses. It would be the best solution to perform one action to cycle through the desired programs. I installed Smart Task Switcher and that was good in theory but I could not find how to configure correctly and the floating button is far too small and often requires several taps, and that is sitting at the desk. There is a paid version where some of this is supposedly settable but from my experience with this app I don't think this is a solution.
The car was the first place that came to mind. But the need to quickly and efficiently switch task is useful in several environments.
I have hit a dead end and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hey man,Im surprised you expect a phone to act as a tomtom,mp3 player and christ knows what else simultaneously.
theunderling said:
Hey man,Im surprised you expect a phone to act as a tomtom,mp3 player and christ knows what else simultaneously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The S2 runs everything just fine, there is just not an efficient way to switch between them.

[Q] Samsung Galaxy SIII Assistive light widget as an application

Hi there.
I'm trying to find the best way of LED flashlight activation and ended up with a tought it should be enabled via double home button press. So Wanam Xposed module allows me to choose which application should be started once I pressed Home twice. Ok.
Here is my problem - I used to use a Tasker task that involved TeslaLED plugin to trigger the flash. Then I found the Assistive light widget, which is a way faster in comparison with TeslaLED. It's virtually instant. But a widget is not the way I like to trigger the flash. It's just not convenient. I thought I found the solution when I found some japanese app called Widget to Shortcut, but it hangs during the widget analysis.
So I'm looking for a way to get an application that simply will be triggering the flash the way the Assistive Light does. Instantly. The best approach is to have the same codebase or activity or intent that implements it (not sure what term is correct here).
And yes, I already tried the hidden Settings activity that allows to use VolUp to enable the flashlight. But it seems not stable to me. First - it stops working if the phone in the deep sleep mode (at least, I guess it's the reason). So, if my phone is intact for a few minutes, I can't use VolUp to fire the light up. And other thing I worried about - I found that this hidden activity somehow prevents the phone from sleeping in certain conditions and that noticeably affected the uptime of my Galaxy SIII.
Plus, I read here that somebody said the same widget on S4 has a lower light level of LED and this was made intentionally. The guy was upset, but here I see the utility - is it possible to choose how bright the LED level could be, in particular for Samsung Galaxy SIII? That would be awesome if I could switch between light levels for a flashlight, just like in real hardware flashlights!
Does anybody knows an answer to either of my questions?
Thanks!
Regards,
Eugene
Try this one....
Push this apk to system/app
Select proper permission...
Download link :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1398008&d=1350122915
It is not my work...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Free mobile app

Floating Dock similar to Huawei/IPhone

Hi all,
Any ideas where I can find a floating dock for Nokia 8? My primary purpose is to be able to avoid using the button on the side to turn the screen off/lock the device. There are several available on the Play Store however they do not offer the ability to turn the screen off individually. I have to enter the pin when I wake up the device?
Alternatively, any gesture app would work too...I coud doube tap anywhere on the homescreen to turn the screen off!
Thanks!
mghs13 said:
Hi all,
Any ideas where I can find a floating dock for Nokia 8? My primary purpose is to be able to avoid using the button on the side to turn the screen off/lock the device. There are several available on the Play Store however they do not offer the ability to turn the screen off individually. I have to enter the pin when I wake up the device?
Alternatively, any gesture app would work too...I coud doube tap anywhere on the homescreen to turn the screen off!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Microsoft Launcher and set home button as turn off screen.
If you don't mind widgets, Screen Lock by Prahallad works. No problem with fingerprint/PIN (have to enable support in settings). Doesn't fully lock immediately; screen blanks then in few seconds device enters actual locked state.
torhonia said:
You can use Microsoft Launcher and set home button as turn off screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah well, then again, its a whole launcher....I like my pixel launcher as is....just need a small app for the dock...not looking to install an entire launcher for that purpose. But thanks man!
P.s. I did install it and check it out....however, it locks the device rather than turns the screen off....so back to square one

[APP] WearMouse, a Wear OS Air Mouse App

Today I’m going to bring a little bit of magic to your Wear OS watch.
As you know from the earlier post, Android Pie has introduced a new public API for using your Android device as a Bluetooth HID Device (e.g. mouse, keyboard, gamepad, etc.), so I built a simple app that demonstrates one of the possible ways you can use this API. Also, see below for a little surprise regarding compatibility...
So, you have probably already guessed from the title what the app does: it allows you to control the mouse pointer simply by waving your hand. It is compatible with any Windows, OSX, Linux (including Raspbian), Chrome OS, Android (including Android TV) device, as long as it has a Bluetooth radio; no root, no “server” software required. Just launch the app, perform Bluetooth pairing, and then you’ll be able to:
Use it as an intuitive pointer for presentations (and also click through the slides using cursor keys);
Play Fruit Ninja with your arms (e.g. by sideloading it on Android TV, or installing it on a Chromebook from the Play Store);
Control a media player from the sofa (e.g. when using a computer connected via HDMI);
Use it as a VR controller in some Cardboard games to walk around (not for Daydream though, since it has its own controller);
Impress your friends with some telekinetic powers.
Control your DeX-connected phone;
Download
Play Store
Source (Note: the source code doesn't include the Oreo hack)
How to use it
The app features three input modes: air mouse, cursor keys and keyboard input.
The air mouse mode is pretty straightforward. It has two on-screen buttons for left and right click, a top drawer to adjust motion tracking for the way you’re wearing your watch (on your left wrist, on your right wrist, or holding it in your hand like a laser pointer), and a bottom drawer for some extra functions: click and hold (a.k.a. Fruit Ninja mode) and middle click. If your watch is equipped with a rotating crown, you can use it for scrolling as well.
The cursor keys mode is simple enough: tap on the sides of the screen to trigger corresponding keys, double-tap in the center to trigger the Enter key, long-press to quit, and there are also swipe gestures for Escape, Backspace, Space and Tab keys.
Finally, the keyboard input mode allows using either an on-screen keyboard, or voice input. Note, though, that the text you’ll see entered on your connected device depends on your keyboard layout. Only US English is supported at the moment (I can add some more, but that will require you to manually switch the layout both in the app and on the device every time).
If your watch has some extra keys, you can use those to quickly switch between the input modes.
There are also some settings available. You can choose to stabilize the pointer movements (this will smooth out smaller motions like hands shaking), enable diagonal movements for the cursor keys (which is useful for those Cardboard games), or reduce the data rate (which is helpful when you use the app with some older Nougat-based Android TV box, and the mouse pointer just can’t keep up).
A word on compatibility.
Like I said, the API was made public in Android Pie, but (as a belated Christmas present) the app will work on any watch running Oreo as well. That is, when reboot your watch, and after the trippy dots animation you see a big colorful “W” and “Wear OS by Google” instead of the “Android Wear” logo, you should be fine. The API was introduced in Oreo, and it was a bit different (and also hidden) at the time, but before Pie is was only enabled on watches by default. There is a way to enable it on phones as well, but it requires root.
A few tips for troubleshooting.
If you connect and see that the mouse pointer is moving once per second in a really janky way, try turning Airplane mode on your watch on and off, and then reconnect. Looks like there is some occasional issue with power management in the Bluetooth stack…
If you want to adjust the “sensitivity”, please look for the pointer speed setting on the connected device, not in the app itself.
If you are using the app with a device that is connected to a TV, you’ll probably want to switch your TV to the “Game” picture mode. This should turn off any post-processing that may cause a lot of lag on modern TVs.
I also recommend turning off wrist gestures in your watch’s settings when you use the air mouse mode, otherwise there’s a high chance of triggering the “back” or “go home” gesture.
This looks great!
By chance is it possible to have an app that connects to the computer and when it disconnects it locks the PC!
c_86 said:
By chance is it possible to have an app that connects to the computer and when it disconnects it locks the PC!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on what you mean.
If you want to make an app that sends Win+L (or Ctrl+Alt+L) when you press "disconnect" on your watch (or maybe connects, sends the key press, then immediately disconnects), then it should be easy enough to implement.
If you mean that the PC should lock itself when your watch disconnects (e.g. goes out of range), then obviously you'll need to have something on your computer to do that. Then again, Windows 10 has a feature called Dynamic Lock that does something similar based on your phone nearby presence.
Idea - Does it possible to implement the same functionality for Smartphone with Android 8? And after that to create Wear app for smartwatches with lower Android version, where the new API is missing - it will act as a remote for the companion app on the smartphone
bobybc said:
Idea - Does it possible to implement the same functionality for Smartphone with Android 8? And after that to create Wear app for smartwatches with lower Android version, where the new API is missing - it will act as a remote for the companion app on the smartphone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, you mean, use a phone connected to a computer (or a TV, our whatever) using this API, then stream motion data from the watch using the phone as a proxy?
Technically it's possible, I wonder what the latency would be though.
Also note that a phone running Android 8 has to be rooted to do this (unlike watches), whereas Android 9 should just work.
Yea, you're right for the lag...
Then i think that it will be useful to have app with the same functionality for a smartphone
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
bobybc said:
Yea, you're right for the lag...
Then i think that it will be useful to have app with the same functionality for a smartphone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not just lag, but power consumption as well.
This API makes use of the low-power mode of the Bluetooth radio called Sniff Sub-Rating (SSR) specifically designed for sending rapid bursts of tiny data packets, whereas watch-to-phone connection would have to be fine in a more generic way.
Making a phone app is really easy, you can pretty much use the same source code, with a few simple changes (mostly deletions). The Android Pie upgrade for your Note 9 is going to arrive pretty soon, which will allow you to experiment with it all you want.
I need the apk since I have a Moto 360 1gen so & cannot look at it on Googleplay

Trouble with Gestures

Is anyone else having trouble using gestures with third party launchers? For me, they work just fine and then after some time it reverts to buttons and I get the message "System navigation updated. To make changes, go to settings".
Searching around, it seems like people on other phones don't have this problem anymore.
On a different note, I started using fluid navigation gestures (FNG) and I preferred that since I could add more gestures. Problem is if I'm plugged into the dual screen case and I turn off the dual screen - either by turning the screen behind the phone or manually turning it off - and use the notification shade, then the buttons come back and hide and FNG is disabled until I start using the dual screen again.
Anyone have any solutions?
schmao said:
Is anyone else having trouble using gestures with third party launchers? For me, they work just fine and then after some time it reverts to buttons and I get the message "System navigation updated. To make changes, go to settings".
Searching around, it seems like people on other phones don't have this problem anymore.
On a different note, I started using fluid navigation gestures (FNG) and I preferred that since I could add more gestures. Problem is if I'm plugged into the dual screen case and I turn off the dual screen - either by turning the screen behind the phone or manually turning it off - and use the notification shade, then the buttons come back and hide and FNG is disabled until I start using the dual screen again.
Anyone have any solutions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same annoying issue! I think it happens every time Nova gets restarted but not sure on that. I've searched for a resolution too and can't find one. I tried creating a tasker profile to make it easier to switch back to gestures via a quick setting but it doesn't work. The secure setting to change is navigation_mode value of 2.
schmao said:
Is anyone else having trouble using gestures with third party launchers? For me, they work just fine and then after some time it reverts to buttons and I get the message "System navigation updated. To make changes, go to settings".
Searching around, it seems like people on other phones don't have this problem anymore.
On a different note, I started using fluid navigation gestures (FNG) and I preferred that since I could add more gestures. Problem is if I'm plugged into the dual screen case and I turn off the dual screen - either by turning the screen behind the phone or manually turning it off - and use the notification shade, then the buttons come back and hide and FNG is disabled until I start using the dual screen again.
Anyone have any solutions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nova shows you an explanation right on the settings page of the problem. Google has not made gestures 100% compatible with 3rd party launchers and there is nothing devs can do until Google gives them what they need
Yes, I've seen that message. I've also seen that Google delivered this ability in December of last year and that some users have this working fine. It's different from when it would gray out the option to use the gestures. This one feels like LGs software is the one resetting the gestures since the notification is titled System UI.
I'd be fine with any solid gesture solution as I'm not mated to the built in gestures, but it seems like others break due to the dual screen. Meanwhile the built in ones fail. I could of course change back to gestures every time this happens, but it feels like I'm using a beta device in this regard.
schmao said:
Yes, I've seen that message. I've also seen that Google delivered this ability in December of last year and that some users have this working fine. It's different from when it would gray out the option to use the gestures. This one feels like LGs software is the one resetting the gestures since the notification is titled System UI.
I'd be fine with any solid gesture solution as I'm not mated to the built in gestures, but it seems like others break due to the dual screen. Meanwhile the built in ones fail. I could of course change back to gestures every time this happens, but it feels like I'm using a beta device in this regard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's LG. My wife has the same issue on her Note10, and I have it in both my V60 and my OnePlus 6t all using Nova. Maybe another launcher has implemented the fix?
So far for me Action Launcher seems to be working ok with gestures, even after a reboot. I prefer Nova but this is close.
edit: Dual screen causes the navigation to revert back

Categories

Resources