"Spare" (unused) keys to use for information transfer

[David.P]

Hi forum,

I already use certain keyboard keys to transfer information from the IGesture Pad to Windows applications, especially to Autohotkey, in order to trigger certain Windows actions by certain gestures. For example, I use the IGesture Pad to send "Pause" or "PrintScreen" keys when I carry out certain gestures on the pad, in order to trigger certain gesture audio feedback sounds in Windows, via Autohotkey.

At the moment however, I sort of run out of spare keys (that are not really used in Windows) in order to trigger even more actions.

I tried F13, F14 and F15, which are all available in the Fingerworks Gesture Editor as possible actions on a gesture, and which are not physically available on my keyboard.



However it seems that Windows doesn't recognize these keys for some reason (tested with the Autohotkey Spy which can show all physical and virtual keystrokes that are happening on the system).

Therefore, if anyone has ideas for more keys that are a) usually not used in Windows, and that b) are available as possible actions in theFingerworks Gesture Editor, I'd be happy to know.

Cheers
David.P
--
more:
ScrollLock: works, is recognized by AHK
BaseBoost, Record, MacPowerDown: not recognized by AHK
Some of the media control keys like Stop_Media, Next/Previous etc. seem to work also for information transfer to Autohotkey, and don't seem to introduce unwanted side effects

[ivanw]

Hi David, if you run out of keys, you can work with key sequences.

I mean you map some available keystroke in AutoHotkey that would not trigger anything on its own but would tell it to Input() the next one for a "special" treatment ... with a timeout if necessary ... and some SoundBeep, 90, 100 or SoundPlay, Guepard.mp3 for feedbacks about the handling

If you're not afraid by piles of exploratory code, I have 29542 AutoHotkey lines to share

[David.P]

Hi Ivan and thanks for the reply.

If I get you right, I think that this is a great idea which should make the team of Fingerworks hardware and Autohotkey infinitely extendable...

Kind of like, I make the I gesture Pad send a key sequence like "x3F&8" on a certain gesture, and my Autohotkey script contains a section like this:

Code: Select all

x3F&8::
SoundPlay, Guepard.wav
DoSomeCoolStuff
return

Is that the approach you are referring to?

[ivanw]

Exactly, I'm sure you can manage from there! My AutoHotkey experience let me do things I would't have expected. Some online on AutoHotkey forums: HID Profiler - Wheel, Joystik, HOTAS

[David.P]

Sorry Ivan that I did not come back to you earlier

Somehow I seem to have missed the forum notification...

While I have not yet implemented this approach, I surely will do so because the current hotkeys that I am using (like PrintScreen and Pause) keep having side effects at times.

Thank you
David

[David.P]

Hi Ivan are you still there?

I have now finally tried this approach, but if I use something like:

Code: Select all

::x3F::
SoundPlay, Guepard.wav
return

...then I first get x3F typed on the screen, then it is erased, and only then the sound is played.

Therefore, I'm not sure whether using hotstrings like these will work for making the iGesture Pad do things via Autohotkey?

[David.P]

JFTR, because I ran out of other keys, I am now trying the "StopMedia" and "NextTrack" media keys in the Fingerworks MyGesture Editor to transfer additional commands from the iGesture Pad to AutoHotkey....

[David.P]

Ok so I made a list of all keyboard commands that are available in the iGesture Pad (i.e. keystrokes that the iGesture Pad can send when recognizing a gesture), see below:

Code: Select all

A-Z
1-0
Enter
Escape
Backspace
Tab
Space
-=[]\# `,.;'/
CapsLock
F1-F15
Right 
Left 
Up 
Down 
Home 
End
PageUp
PageDown
Insert
Delete
PrintScreen
ScrollLock
Pause
MacPowerDown
LeftShift
RightShift
LeftCtrl
RightCtrl
LeftAlt
RightAlt
LeftGUI
RightGUI
PopupMenü
NumLock
NumPad1- NumPad0
NumPad+-*/
NumPadEnter
Keypad=
VolumeUp
VolumeDown
Mute
BaseBoost
NextTrack
PreviousTrack
Play/Pause
StopMedia
Eject
FastForward
Rewind
Record
Email Reader
Calculator
File Explorer
Web Browser
Web Search
Web Home
Web Back
Web Forward
Web Stop
Web Refresh
Web Bookmarks

Afterwards I realized that there are many normally unused keys that could be used to trigger things by gestures (by receiving the respective keystroke from the iGesture Pad via autohotkey). I figure mostly any of the following could be used:

CapsLock
Insert
PrintScreen
ScrollLock
Pause
LeftGUI
PopupMenü
Keypad=
BaseBoost
NextTrack
PreviousTrack
Play/Pause
StopMedia
FastForward
Rewind
Record
Email Reader
File Explorer
Web Browser
Web Search
Web Home
Web Back
Web Forward
Web Stop
Web Refresh
Web Bookmarks

Any comments about which of these keys would have the least possible side effects would be welcome.

[David.P]

Ok so I'm using CapsLock and ScrollLock now.

These keys seem to work very good for transferring commands from the iGesture Pad to AutoHotkey.