Multi-Touch Technology Native on Linux

One of the cool new features introduced by the iPhone is the ability to use two fingers simultaneously to manipulate screen objects. For example, while viewing a picture, you can zoom in or zoom out by touching the screen with two fingers and moving them apart or closer together.

Now a team at ENAC in Toulouse, France, has added native multi-touch support to Linux. They have modified the Linux kernel 2.6.30 to faciliate multi-touch functionality so that it works on any Linux platform, independent of the window manager. The developers anticipate that this technology will be integrated into Android, the Linux operating system developed by Google for cell phones and other mobile devices.