OT Can you do this with a tablet?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Doe
  • Start date Start date
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John Doe

Trying to avoid confusion...

I'm sure that you can use a tablet for a virtual keyboard and/or a
touchpad component of a desktop computer, but that's not what I'm
asking about.

What if all you have is a tablet and big monitor. Of course what
you see on the tablet screen can be sent to the monitor with a
cable or wireless.

But...

Can you use a tablet as a virtual keyboard and/or a touchpad while
displaying the contents of the tablet, the GUI output part like
windows and dialogs that we interact with, on a PC monitor? The
idea is to make better use of the tablet touchscreen while using
the PC monitor as if it were connected to a PC. Preferably for
Android, but curious to know if it's been done on an iPad.

It might be tough to do since the iPad/Android touch interface
uses the whole screen of the tablet. Functioning as a touchpad, it
would control a pointer like on a PC, so you would have a pointer
moving around on an iPad/android GUI, which is even more involved.
Yet I have seen what looks like a pointer on an Android GUI, maybe
that's related.
 
Trying to avoid confusion...

I'm sure that you can use a tablet for a virtual keyboard and/or a
touchpad component of a desktop computer, but that's not what I'm
asking about.

What if all you have is a tablet and big monitor. Of course what
you see on the tablet screen can be sent to the monitor with a
cable or wireless.

But...

Can you use a tablet as a virtual keyboard and/or a touchpad while
displaying the contents of the tablet, the GUI output part like
windows and dialogs that we interact with, on a PC monitor? The
idea is to make better use of the tablet touchscreen while using
the PC monitor as if it were connected to a PC. Preferably for
Android, but curious to know if it's been done on an iPad.

It might be tough to do since the iPad/Android touch interface
uses the whole screen of the tablet. Functioning as a touchpad, it
would control a pointer like on a PC, so you would have a pointer
moving around on an iPad/android GUI, which is even more involved.
Yet I have seen what looks like a pointer on an Android GUI, maybe
that's related.
Click to expand...

If your tablet has an HDMI port, you can connect it to an HDMI
monitor/TV. The monitor or TV will display exactly what you see on the
tablet's screen. If you pop up the onscreen keyboard on the tablet, it
will show on the monitor/TV also. Since the onscreen keyboard usually
takes up a bunch of space onscreen, it will do the same on the monitor/TV.

I don't know of any way (and don't think there is a way) to
simultaneously display different output on the monitor/TV than on the
tablet screen.

What I find works better is to connect the tablet to both an HDMI
monitor/TV and also a regular keyboard and mouse. I connect mine to a
wireless KB and mouse combo that share the same USB dongle. I plug the
USB dongle into the tablet and I now get a mouse cursor onscreen and can
type without having to display the onscreen keyboard. Works just about
like a standard computer that way. With my large-screen TV, I can sit
across the room and surf the web, watch videos, etc.
 
Per Tim Rude:
What I find works better is to connect the tablet to both an HDMI
monitor/TV and also a regular keyboard and mouse. I connect mine to a
wireless KB and mouse combo that share the same USB dongle. I plug the
USB dongle into the tablet and I now get a mouse cursor onscreen and can
type without having to display the onscreen keyboard. Works just about
like a standard computer that way.
Click to expand...

I've done something similar - but with a BlueTooth mouse and a BlueTooth
keyboard.

Was quite surprised to see the little arrow pointer appear on the
tablet's screen....

I found that combination to be pretty good. Not as good as a "Real"
mouse/keyboard/PC... but close enough to do some moderate-volume typing.
 
How about this...

Use the tablet as a virtual touchpad. That's the way it is by
default (nothing new here). With the big picture on your big
monitor. That's the way it currently is.

But...

Have a single place/button on the tablet screen you can tap to
toggle between touchpad and keyboard. When you want to use the
keyboard, it pops up to cover the whole tablet screen (still in
landscape mode). The main difference is that the keyboard fills
the whole tablet screen and doesn't show up on your monitor.

Either that, or have both the keyboard and touchpad showing on the
tablet screen. But I suppose you can get away with temporarily
using the keyboard, the way it is now.
 
And it was just pointed out (obvious for anyone who has
experience) that you have to either keep your eye on the tablet or
connect a pointing device to the tablet, when using the tablet
with an external monitor. That's even more reason to turn it into
a touchpad when using it with an external monitor.
 
Tim Rude said:
I don't know of any way (and don't think there is a way) to
simultaneously display different output on the monitor/TV than
on the tablet screen.
Click to expand...

Not necessary in the simplest of implementations...

The big display would mirror the tablet display. The tablet would
show a tiny pointer. How small doesn't matter because you won't be
looking at the tablet. The pointer location would correspond to
the current pointer location as shown by "developer options" on
anAndroid. That pointer would be driven by touch. That should be
easy enough, the only difference is that a relative pointer
position would be used instead of current finger point position.

Apparently 99% of the programming for this stuff is already done
on Android tablets. Probably also on iPads or whatever. It would
just need a GUI switch and to make a few tiny adjustments when
connected to a monitor.

Being able to toggle to a virtual keyboard (without showing it on
the monitor) wouldn't be anything special, either.





--

In our last episode...

Use tablet as touchpad when connected to big monitor/TV?

Instead of having to keep one's eyes on the tablet while clumsily
tapping around, why not turn the tablet into a touchpad when
mirroring the display of the tablet on a large screen? With that
setup, the tablet display wouldn't actually be mirrored, the big
display would look like a desktop computer display with a pointer
floating around on it. Also, the virtual touchpad on the tablet
could be resizable so that you could simultaneously show a virtual
keyboard (neither of which would show on the big display). Or
there could be a spot on the tablet display tapped to switch
between virtual keyboard and touchpad. Again, neither showing up
on the big display.

I guess the current workaround is to plug pointing devices into
the touchpad. But why not an elegant software solution instead.
 
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