On-screen keyboard implementation?

[Chris Schlemmer]

Now that the login-manager has been changed to Chrome and there is
mouse support, would it be possible to have an on-screen keyboard so
we can utilize a touchscreen vs a keyboard to login? The Virtual
Keyboard overlay that already exists would be perfect since it already
has all the functionality of a keyboard, it would just need to pass
the keys back to the browser. There would also be the need for a
keyboard button to enable the on-screen keyboard so F8 wasn't needed.
This could be put in the toolbar along with the network picker.

I know this probably isn't something that would be put high or at all
on the feature additions so would there be any developers interested
in adding this functionality as a privately funded paid project?

Would this be something that the Chromium OS group would like to have
added to the master build if this add on was created privately? I see
this as a critical component of any planned touchscreen support so the
work would definitely not go to waste. I have already enabled
touchscreen support using the EvTouch drivers included with Ubuntu so
that part is taken care of, its just the on-screen keyboard is a must
to be able to use Chromium OS effectively with a touchscreen.

Thanks a lot for anyone's input, if there is anyone out there who
would like to take on this project, please let me know.

Chris

[Anton Vayvod]

http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/user-experience/form-factors/tablet

This implies that onscreen keyboard should be on a feature list.

2010/2/11 Chris Schlemmer <sch...@schris.net>

[Daniel Erat]

The existing F8-triggered keyboard overlay is just a small amount of
code in the window manager that polls the keyboard state and displays
a couple of static images onscreen, so it's unlikely to be useful for
what you describe.

There are a bunch of virtual keyboards already written for X. A web
search turned up
http://www.touch-base.com/documentation/Virtual%20Keyboards.htm, which
has a list. I'd recommend checking if any of those can be adapted for
your needs before writing new code.

[Chris Schlemmer]

The ones that already exist would work ok for my situation as well, it
would just be figuring out how to enable this virtual keyboard on the
login screen. Is there a place I can insert a line in a script to run
the keyboard app on top of the chrome login window? What script is the
login window spaun from?

Thanks!
Chris

> search turned uphttp://www.touch-base.com/documentation/Virtual%20Keyboards.htm, which

[Greg Spencer]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 5:11 AM, Chris Schlemmer <sch...@schris.net> wrote:

The ones that already exist would work ok for my situation as well, it
would just be figuring out how to enable this virtual keyboard on the
login screen. Is there a place I can insert a line in a script to run
the keyboard app on top of the chrome login window? What script is the
login window spaun from?

The keyboard images are static images shown by the window manager's C++ code, and only responds to three keys (Ctrl, Alt, and Shift).  The login window has no way to connect to this code, and even if it did, they're just static images, they're not an app, and definitely not a virtual keyboard.

-Greg.

[Daniel Erat]

(I'm assuming that "ones that already exist" here is referring to the
virtual keyboards that I linked to, not the hotkey overlay images in
the window manager.)

Chris, you should be able to trace through the current login manager
startup procedure by looking at the upstart script at
src/platform/init/ui.conf and the various scripts in
src/platform/login_manager.

[Greg Spencer]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Daniel Erat <de...@chromium.org> wrote:

> The keyboard images are static images shown by the window manager's C++
> code, and only responds to three keys (Ctrl, Alt, and Shift).  The login
> window has no way to connect to this code, and even if it did, they're just
> static images, they're not an app, and definitely not a virtual keyboard.

(I'm assuming that "ones that already exist" here is referring to the
virtual keyboards that I linked to, not the hotkey overlay images in
the window manager.)

Ahh,  Yeah, that's probably what he meant.  My bad. :) 

-Greg.

[Chris Schlemmer]

I have been playing around with different on-screen keyboards and all
seem to require a certain type of window manager such as GNOME or
others which means it won't work with Chromium OS... Any ideas when
the official Chromium onscreen keyboard is slated for work? Is it just
a concept right now?

Thanks!
Chris

[Steve Pirk]

On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 05:41, Chris Schlemmer <sch...@schris.net> wrote:

I have been playing around with different on-screen keyboards and all
seem to require a certain type of window manager such as GNOME or
others which means it won't work with Chromium OS... Any ideas when
the official Chromium onscreen keyboard is slated for work? Is it just
a concept right now?

Thanks!
Chris

 

There has to be some sort of X session Chromium runs in, and I admit, I have no idea what it is but will look around - fingers just cannot type on the nexus well ;-]

All that needs is the drivers to take taps of the screen and equate to kbd input. Here is a little gem I have been waiting to come back in stock: 

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/keyboards-mice/8193/ - bluetooth laser projected keyboard

Maybe someone can research the company behind it and see what drivers they use for translation of taps to keys.

--egrep

steve pirk

bremerton, wa usa

"father... the sleeper has awakened..." paul atreides - dune