Tracking graphics tablet input in C#

Question

I'm writing an XNA application with C#, and I want to be able to control the application with a graphics tablet. All I need to be able to do is track the position and pressure of the pen on the tablet, it would be nice to have some built in gesture recognition but I'm willing to build that myself if needed.

My first attempt at this was to use the vbtablet library. However, when I sent this to a friend it failed to work. It seems that the underlying technology is quite old and not supported by some tablets.

My second attempt is to play with the Microsoft.Ink system. This looks promising, but I know very little about this subject and I'm struggling to make it work properly - for example I can't find how to read the raw tablet input and disable mouse pointer mode on the tablet when using an InkOverlay.

What's the best system to use and what good documentation is there for a beginner in this field?

Answer 1

Well, if you are open to supporting windows 7 only, you can just something like XNA 4 (currently in CTP via the Windows Phone SDK) which has built-in touch APIs. On windows 7, those APIs are supported by the underlying WM_TOUCH messages that the OS sends.

edit: okay, second attempt at this :-) you could use a tablet, such as the Wacom Bamboo, to send TUIO messages; And then install Multi-Touch Vista to convert those TUIO messages into WM_TOUCH messages.