[PD] Wacom Bamboo Pen Touch HID attempts

Christian Frisson christian.frisson at uclouvain.be
Mon Jun 7 16:24:32 CEST 2010


Dear pd-list,

I'm running 0.41.4-extended, currently under OSX, with [hidio] compiled 
(it is part of the source package but not the binary package).

I could interface jog wheels and 3D mice using this solution 
successfuly, but I'm now stuck with Wacom's Bamboo Pen and Touch. I'd 
like to find a solution, first on OSX, towards cross-platform support.

1) bamboo-tuio is Windows-specific (I took a look a the code):
<http://code.google.com/p/bamboo-tuio/>

2) linuxwacom is linux-specific and it seems multi-touch events from 
this device are not yet supported:
<http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1321238>

3) [hidio] can only detect buttons and single finger touch when grabbing 
the first of the three virtual devices contained in the physical device 
(driver uninstalled). And buttons are mapped to system commands (right 
click and so on...). Some of the undetected events are listed on the 
console when opening the device with [hidio] with undefined Page/Usage, 
while the source of hidio contains lots of definitions. Is this the 
track to follow?

4) I tried Kyle Machulis way of reverse-engineering HID devices (parsing 
with libhid), but I'm stuck at the earliest stages: OSX becomes the 
first responder (I cannot thus grab the device properly with libhid) and 
maps the device to the UI. I have frankly a hard time writing a 
"codeless kext" for this composite device to be detected as simple 
serial device (not mapped to the UI). Any help or good pointer, as the 
Apple doc is not that verbose?
<http://www.nonpolynomial.com/portfolio/>

5) Other solution: writing a Bamboo Mini TUIO/OSC bridge in ActionScript 
3.0, but you need to run your browser or AIR, fear that your Mini won't 
get accepted... Detected events can be bridged (I tried), but not the 4 
buttons...
<http://mini-developer.wacom.eu>

Anybody else tried? Any other suggestion? Any good codeless kext writing 
reference? HID/[hidio] experts?

Tip: try to discover your HID devices first without installing drivers 
(that may contain panels or apps that route them as mice or keyboards)!

Best,
Christian



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