so CAN the G1 use multi touch?

[JayBachatero]

From my understanding, the device itself supports multi touch. The problem is the gestures. Apple filed for a mess of patents for this.

Also that video is not an example of multi touch. I can do the same thing with my Wind and MDA.

[shaky777]

i think we are not far from it

[Krak]

apple doesnt have a patent on it... look at the microsoft surface, it has multi touch...

[DiscoDapper]

Yeah, those videos don't prove it or disprove it. My old HTC 6700 would do the same thing when you added another finger to it.

Apple has patents for multitouch on phones/mobile devices but not desktop. The patents are messed up if you ask me since Apple did not invent multitouch.

[Krak]

Originally Posted by DiscoDapper

Yeah, those videos don't prove it or disprove it. My old HTC 6700 would do the same thing when you added another finger to it.

Apple has patents for multitouch on phones/mobile devices but not desktop. The patents are messed up if you ask me since Apple did not invent multitouch.

They got a couple of companys who own patents on multi touch on mobile devices, such as nintendo, they were granted a multi touch patent on hand held devices in 2004... theres a few other companys too...

they patent gestures for commands, not the actual act of using a multi touch screen

[LGSilva]

The G1 is capable of multi-touch as it uses the same technology as the iPhone.
The problem is that Apple holds a patent on how multi-touch is detected on the phone using such "projective capacitive touchscreen":

"The real breakthrough here, displaywise, is Apple's use of multitouch technology using a projective capacitive design," said Paul Semenza, vice president for displays at iSuppli Corp. "What we suspect they did was to use an algorithm within NXP's ARM-based controller chip to measure the finger touches over the display and adjust the screen content accordingly."

Apple was assigned patent application number 20060097991 for the multitouch screen technology--one of some 200 iPhone-related patents for which Apple applied. The abstract reads in part that the touch panel has "a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations in the plane of the touch panel and that produces distinct signals representative of the location of the touches on the plane of the touch panel for each of the multiple touches."

[Naterade]

OK, there seems to be a lot of confusion about the G1 having multitouch, and it doesn't. The phenomena in the video is a simple vectoring issue single touch displays have when you touch two places at one. Basically, it detects that you are pushing in the middle when you push two separate points of the screen, it can't detect things such as rotation or pinch functions. If you have a tablet PC other than the Dell-Multitouch you know about this issue, but again, the G1 Does NOT have multitouch.

[LGSilva]

It's a software limitation as seen in other HTC phones.
Check this article which has a very interesting video: http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=693

[DreamcastDC]

The hardware does support it, the G1 is using Synaptics patented diamond pattern ClearPad sensor(you can see this on the G1 screen at a angle). And G1 is using a "Projected capacitive" touch screen, which supports multiple-finger gestures, so clearly it does support multi touch, but for some reason it was implemented.

http://www.informationdisplay.org/ar...=07&file=art10

[Naterade]

In DreamCast's article it even states there are two types of capacative touch screens, and one which doesn't support multitouch, which the G1 uses, so again no multitouch.