Annoying automatic left/right hand recognition, iGesture Pad

[David.P]

Hi forum,

is there anything at all anyone can think of that could be done to prevent automatic left/right hand switching by the gesture processor? This happens to me literally hundreds of times a day and disrupts my work process all the time. Maybe it is due to my pinky being rather short compared to the other fingers (not sure what that means in terms of my though)

This obviously leads the gesture processor to confuse pinky contact with thumb contact (or something). Anyway, it happens to me all the time that the pad switches to left hand mode for some reason, possibly related to the finger lenght issue.

Any tricks to prevent automatic left/right hand recognition for good?

Thanks already
David.P

[TorbenGB]

I had similar experiences, and I can offer you two suggestions.
1) Reset the device by placing a flat hand on the surface -- five times in a row. That might help.
2) In the configuration software, there's a slider to set your hand size -- use a significantly smaller setting.

Best of luck!

[David.P]

Aahh Torben, just saw your post by chance (somehow I wasn't notified).

Thanks very much, I had not thought about the hand size setting. Actually, this happens literally every minute or so (almost every second or third time I use the thumb-and-pinky "Enter" gesture) and terribly disrupts my concentration and work flow.

I'll try the hand size setting, and will report back!

Cheers David.P

[The00Dustin]

If it's always that same gesture that throws it off and the hand size thing doesn't work, you could try rotating the pad a bit to help it look more like the appropriate hand. Obviously this could potentially affect other gestures, but it's worth a shot.

[David.P]

Thanks -- actually what I've done is I've gotten rid of that Thumb/Pinky gesture altogether. It just would not work reliably (only if the hand size was set way too small for other gestures to still work).

Fortunately, I found an unused gesture that I'm now using for "Enter".

Cheers David.P

[David.P]

Guys, I can't believe that (after like years) I'm still suffering very much from this issue all the time.

The pad auto-changes to the left hand literally HUNDREDS of times a day

Any ideas always welcome

[David.P]

Guys, this kills me.

I love my iGesture Pad, but it still does that unwanted hand swap HUNDREDS of times a day (like once every minute or so).

The thing is, i have NEVER managed to evoke the behavior intentionally. But as soon as I forget thinking about it, the behaviour surely starts again.

[TorbenGB]

I'm really sorry to hear that this problem hasn't been solved yet, David. It's good that you post again.

- Have you run the device diagnostics, does the board pass with all green sensors?
- Have you tried a complete software reset, i.e. load the default firmware onto the device again? This will wipe your customizations but I'm sure that's the lesser pain for you.

[David.P]

Thanks Torben, I'll try and do as you propose (if I can find a XP installation somewhere...)

Actually I don't think it is a software or hardware problem, since it happens overly often when I'm tired or in a hurry. I could be doing something wrong myself. If I only could FORCE that behavior one single time intentionally, but no chance.

However, I might try one of my other iGesture Pads that are sitting in the cupboard.

Thank you again
David.P

[TorbenGB]

If you suspect it's neither a configuration nor a hardware fault, then try to adjust the "hand size" setting. On my TSLP, I found that the medium hand size worked better for me even though I do have fairly large hands. Keep in mind that the hand size looks smaller of course when you bend your fingers more.

[David.P]

Yes Torben, I already played around with the hand size setting -- however not with much success so far unfortunately.

[David.P]

This is truly a feature from hell.

The thing is, and I am not kidding -- if I am tired, the iGesture pad swaps hands nearly EVERY time I touch it for pointing or scrolling.

I can even FEEL it before it is going to happen -- but only unconsciously. If I try to reproduce this error intentionally, it NEVER happens, no matter what crappy movements I try to make on the pad.

Anyway, thanks @all for commiserating.

Cheers David.P

[The00Dustin]

Very interesting. No doubt even more frustrating being that you're tired when it happens. Are you friends with a potential third partywho is analytical enough to watch you use it when it works and when it doesn't and spot the slight physical difference that you're obviously unable to intentionally create thus far? Alternatively, maybe a video camera? It could be that the pad just hates you, but I tend to believe you are more tense or something and it causes a slight difference that just crosses some threshold that isn't being considered.

[TorbenGB]

[David.P]

[David.P]

Can you guys believe that this feature from hell has pestered me like a 100,000 times now -- and I still didn't manage one single &%*$§ing time to reproduce it intentionally?

Anyway I will carry on trying very hard.

[TorbenGB]

Hi David!
O man I'm sorry t hear that you're still troubled by this. I haven't had any similar experiences and no ideas to help you on.
Do you have more than one FW device, and if so is only that one affected? That could reveal whether it's a device problem or operation.

[David.P]

Thank you very much Torben for your compassion. Although I think that I have already tried some of my other iGesture Pads, I will try again and report back if anything should improve.

After all, our Fingerworks touchpads and keyboards are still unparalleled, indispensable, and in a class of its own by far.

Best regards,
David
--
[edit]: first occurrence of the feature from hell after like 30 seconds, with the other iGesture Pad

[David.P]

Guys, I start to suspect that the four-finger up/down scrolling gesture is the main culprit here, because most often, the 'feature from hell' occurs just after scrolling (about one time per minute, day in year out).

Therefore, I thought I'd use five fingers for scrolling instead -- this would also be more comfortable. Now before I start to search for an old laptop that runs my XP copy -- is there any faulty reasoning involved on my side? I suspect that yes, since probably I have tried 5-finger scrolling before, but for some reason I don't remember anymore it was impractical.

Best Regards
David

[The00Dustin]

Since the cause is clearly not obvious, I wouldn't rule anything out. Trying five finger scrolling sounds especially reasonable if you want five finger scrolling anyway, and it sounds like you do. However, I'm curious as to whether your four finger scrolling is with your fingers together or spread. I'm guessing spread, because if they were together, I don 't think there would be any way for the device to attempt to detect which hand was being used. When I had a TSLP, I used four finger gestures for scrolling and cursor movement at the very least, but didn't have to deal with your issue due to having a left-hand pad and a right-hand pad. Is your pinky finger as long as or longer than your index finger by chance? If so, and/or perhaps depending on the length of your ring finger vs your middle finger, four finger scrolling with spread fingers could certainly be the culprit. Personally, I always placed the tips of my fingers together (or at least lined up almost horizontally) to do the four finger gestures (same as the chords). It's difficult to describe how I held my hand to do that (middle and ring finger bent the most, pinky finger extended the most, but not straight, all comfortable), but I have a feeling it wouldn't trigger what you are seeing and likely isn't how you are performing the gesture.

[David.P]

[The00Dustin]

[David.P]

[The00Dustin]

Good point on the scroll gesture being active until all fingers are removed. I forgot. Been far too long since I've had a TSLP, but that particular behavior applies to most gestures on most touch devices anymore.

[David.P]

This is magic, or something. Accidentally, I felt rather energetic the last 2 hours (doesn't happen SO often here), and the feature from hell has not struck me one single time.