Starlight

About

Directly manipulated multitouch user interfaces, combined with rich visual content, are today's trend in mobile devices. The same technologies have also been recently introduced to PCs by e.g. Dell and HP with Windows 7. These new devices usually provide the full extent of new capabilities only to native applications. There is no uniform way a web developer can embrace the new interactions and rich visual content.

In this project we have been looking into bringing multitouch and gestures to the web framework in order to accelerate web usage with mobile devices and laptops. We have also adapted the Apple proposed CSS transforms, transitions and animations on top of Qt 4.6. These can be effectively used for creating visually appealing effects. Look video below to see what can be done with Starlight. More videos here.

A major problem to the developer is that there is no common agreement of multitouch and/or gesture javascript APIs. Common Web standard, similar to mouse behavior, should be created for multitouch devices. Thus our intention in the Starlight project is to create open source implementation which can be elaborated by the community. Eventually specification should be proposed as a standard to the W3C.

Development SW

In this project we selected the Qt port of WebKit as the basis for the implementation. WebKit is also used by Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Android. We are also working with the Mozilla community on the specification.

The gesture framework implemented to the WebKit uses touch events introduced in Qt 4.6 to maximize portability across platforms. The event mechanism has been properly integrated to the WebKit's WebCore to allow easy implementation also for other back-ends.

Development HW

For the starlight development you need multitouch HW. We have used Dell Latitude XT and HP TouchSmart IQ512 multitouch PCs as the development environment. Multitouch Eee PC can also be used to test this.

You need to use Windows 7 and install new Windows 7 touch beta drivers:

• Dell Latitude XT and XT2: N-trig
• HP Touchsmart: Nextwindow

Releases

Binary release

Here is the Windows 7 installer which installs the Starlight browser to your PC. It is a rudimentary web browser based on Qt 4.6 and Starlight technologies.

N.B. By default Windows 7 long-tap recognizer prevents touch events from reaching the browser until you have moved your finger. To disable this behavior, go to Control Panel / Pen and Touch / Touch. Select "Press and hold" and click settings and uncheck the "Enable press and hold for right-click" checkbox.

Source code and building instructions

Here are the building instructions for the Windows 7 if you want to make your own modifications.

Known Issues

Demos and test pages

These demos show the capabilities of the Starlight. They have been developed by Thomas Fuchs, the creator of the script.aculo.us Javascript library.

Developer guide

The developer guide is available here. If you want to use the interactive parts, you need to use Starlight browser with multitouch HW. You can, however, read the guide with any browser.

Documentation

Multitouch SW architecture documentation is here.

Licenses

WebKit is open source software with portions licensed under the LGPL and BSD licenses. We have followed the same license policy with the Starlight modifications. Complete license and copyright information can be found within the code.

Team

• Jyrki Yli-Nokari
• Harri Heine
• Kari Hiitola
• Jonni Rainisto

Feedback

We would very much appreciate any feedback you can give us related to this work. Send your comments directly to