Evaluating the Performance of Direct Injection and TUIO-based Protocols for Multi-Touch Data Transfer

In the past two years, hardware vendors have released drivers for multi-touch devices running on Windows 7. Since direct injection of multi-touch input uses the Human Interface Device (HID) for USB protocol, it represents a new way of transferring touch data to client applications acting as an alternative to the Tangible User Interface protocol (TUIO) previously introduced. Anecdotally, TUIO has been criticized in the past for slowing applications down because of noticeable latency gaps between touch interactions and visual feedback from the system. This problem can result in poor user experiences and software quality degradation, both of which are contributing factors to device rejection in the marketplace. Over time touch-based systems have evolved into modular systems making it challenging to track performance bottlenecks in the overall system. This thesis focuses on high-performance multi-touch software systems by comparing HID and TUIO to determine which protocol contributes the lowest latency. A semi-automated benchmark harness was constructed for an existing system to simulate and monitor different scenarios commonly observed in multi-touch interactions, with the goal of stress-testing both protocols without the presence of hardware. A performance evaluation was conducted on the modified system and the results indicate that, when compared to TUIO, HID is a faster protocol for multi-touch data transfer under constantly changing and often strenuous conditions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MSc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Andreychuk, Darren

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Maurer, Frank

• Computer Science

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/25977

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/218