Enable a “Controller Cursor Mode” when system is not in movement

[navnerd]

I’d like to know if other users may have interest in this feature (let’s call it “Controller Cursor Mode”=CCM):

For comfort, simplicity of use and security reasons, DMD2 supports handlebar controllers just for the most important functionality, e.g. pan/zoom the map during riding, change the map orientation or activate a routing.

 

Problem/Use Case:

The problem is that if you need other, more special functions you often need to use the touch screen with your finger since it cannot be controlled by the handlebar controller. This is a problem if:

–          You use gloves that don’t work together with phone touch screens (I have just one pair of gloves that work with a touch screen, most of mine don’t ☹)

–          It’s raining cats and dogs (this probably is less the case in Portugal and other more southern regions of the EU 😉, but often in Germany and for sure more north in GB, Island or Norway) and you use additional rain gloves/mittens that do not allow to accurately touch screen buttons. Then it is required to put the rain mittens off, then the standard gloves off, then touch the buttons, then put both gloves on again, try to “seal” the gap between gloves and rain suit,… ☹

–          Screen touch mode is simply disabled because of heavy rain

–          It is very cold, below 0 °C, and you simply don’t want to put your thick gloves off to touch the screen more precisely

 

Solution:

Therefore, I propose a “controller cursor mode” (CCM) that allows the driver to use the joy stick of a handlebar controller to move a cursor on the screen to reach every location there (just like a mouse pointer). Pressing a screen button by hitting “enter” on the handlebar controller then activates the command.

During driving, this is probably a big distraction and dangerous, but when not in movement it might be very useful under the above circumstances. I have the following proposal for implementation:

–          The CCM has to be enabled somewhere in the settings and is off by default in DMD delivery state

–          Once enabled in the settings, CCM can only be activated by a very long press on the joy stick or enter button (3 seconds) and for security reasons only if the android device is not in movement!

–          Then, standing at the side of the road, the user can control everything even with thick gloves in heavy rain or cold environment by using the handlebar controller joy stick as a cursor/mouse pointer

–          The CCM will be automatically deactivated again as soon as the device gets into movement and can only be reactivated by the same procedure (very long press) when the movement stops

Please comment what you think about this…

Thanks!

 

[Severian]

Very good proposal. I fully understand and support this, specially in heavy rain (if I unlock screen in heavy rain it goes wild because of rain drops).

Very useful, indeed.

[Author]

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