Is there a way to simulate touch events in Windows

Question

Is there a way to simulate touch events in Windows 8 (and preferably in windows 7).
I know there is a project called Multi touch vista but I feel its a bit overkill and I never got it working correctly with multiple screens.
What I want to do is very simple, I want to start an app that can send touch events to Windows no need for multiple mice or any thing like that.
Can it be done or do I need a (MMV) driver to do that?

Thanks
/Jimmy

Answer 1

I was looking for something similar and found this article Simulating Touch Input in Windows Developer preview using Touch Injection API and sample code (C++) may answer your question. However, this seems to work only on Windows 8 (not Windows 7).

It simulates Tap, Hold, Drag, Pinch/Pan, Rotate and Cross-Slide.

Here is the touch (Tap) code:

POINTER_TOUCH_INFO contact;
InitializeTouchInjection(1, TOUCH_FEEDBACK_DEFAULT); // Here number of contact point is declared as 1.
memset(&contact, 0, sizeof(POINTER_TOUCH_INFO)); 

contact.pointerInfo.pointerType = PT_TOUCH;
contact.pointerInfo.pointerId = 0;          //contact 0
contact.pointerInfo.ptPixelLocation.y = 200; // Y co-ordinate of touch on screen
contact.pointerInfo.ptPixelLocation.x = 300; // X co-ordinate of touch on screen

contact.touchFlags = TOUCH_FLAG_NONE;
contact.touchMask = TOUCH_MASK_CONTACTAREA | TOUCH_MASK_ORIENTATION | TOUCH_MASK_PRESSURE;
contact.orientation = 90; // Orientation of 90 means touching perpendicular to screen.
contact.pressure = 32000; 

// defining contact area (I have taken area of 4 x 4 pixel)
contact.rcContact.top = contact.pointerInfo.ptPixelLocation.y - 2;
contact.rcContact.bottom = contact.pointerInfo.ptPixelLocation.y + 2;
contact.rcContact.left = contact.pointerInfo.ptPixelLocation.x  - 2;
contact.rcContact.right = contact.pointerInfo.ptPixelLocation.x  + 2;


contact.pointerInfo.pointerFlags = POINTER_FLAG_DOWN | POINTER_FLAG_INRANGE | POINTER_FLAG_INCONTACT;
InjectTouchInput(1, &contact); // Injecting the touch down on screen

contact.pointerInfo.pointerFlags = POINTER_FLAG_UP;
InjectTouchInput(1, &contact); // Injecting the touch Up from screen

Another article: Getting Started with Windows Touch Gestures

Answer 2

Further to the solution which points to the C++ Sample code for InjectTouchInput which comes packaged in the User32.dll of Windows 8, the C# solution can be found here:

InjectTouchInput Windows 8 C# not working (returns false)

Answer 3

Creating a virtual Hid driver appears to be the only way.

Answer 4

I haven't had a chance to try it myself, but according to this article, the simulator included with the Windows 8 Dev Preview allows for simulating multi-touch zoom and rotation gestures using a mouse.

You can see a demonstration of this at approximately 35:40 of this BUILD conference session: Tools for building Metro style apps