I need a program that allows use of a touch screen from one computer on another..

[Electric-Mayhem]

I'm usually pretty good with google but am striking out. I'm looking for a program that allows me to use the touch screen from an All In One to control another PC. Since I just figured out that the HDMI port on my Lenovo Horizon 2 All in One is actually an In rather then an Out and means it can be used as a monitor.

The Horizon series was designed as a "Family Fun" pc to play tabletop style games and interact and I guess they thought it might make a cool computer to get for a kid and allow them to plug an Xbox or PS4 or DVD player or whatever.

Fortunately, Its actually a pretty decent 27" monitor and the touch works great some of the PC based lighting control software I use. That said, I often use an actual lighting control console and having a large touch screen as an extra monitor would be awesome.

This is where the difficult and hard to find part starts. You just plug the HDMI in and it works great as a monitor. I was hoping that I could maybe figure out how to get the touchscreen to work as well. There isn't an obvious way, so the only way I can think of is to have a program that acts like a touch screen interface for the other PC. Searching for that only brings up people talking about using the image part or endless product pages for Touch Screen PC's.

That is a long post just asking whether anyone know's of a program that does this. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Matt2000]

I just Googled for something that allows remote peripherals and came across this:

http://pcremoteserver.com/

No idea if it's any good but I'd be prepared to give it a go between my touch screen laptop and my PC tonight. Drivers are going to be interesting, a mouse wouldn't be an issue but a touch screen is in a different league.

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

Thanks for looking. It appears that app is more about using your phone as a remote desktop similar to splashtop and others.

I'm not saying you don't understand, but I'll reitterate that Right now what I have is an touch screen All in One that can act as a monitor but the touch screen does not. When you plug the HDMI in, it just switches seemlesly to whatever you are sending from the other device (i.e. cloned screen or extend the desktop of the other PC....whatever you set it to). I'm unsure if it just turns the touchscreen off or what happens with the pc hardware while in monitor mode, but it seems to pop seamlessly back into being a full computer again as soon as you unplug the HDMI.

I'm realizing that its a long shot, but there are plenty of varied experiences on FinalGear and I've gotten help before. I'll probably try some more computer oriented sites as well....but searches of Tom's Hardware and similar didn't bear much fruit.

 

[Spectre]

IIRC, the Horizon shuts down or suspends the PC's hardware inputs when you use it as a monitor and have its input switched to that.

- - - Updated - - -

Forgot to mention; if it *were* to keep the HID alive, you could use ShareMouse to try to share the touchscreen.

 

[bone]

rdp, teamviewer, VNC, logmein?

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

IIRC, the Horizon shuts down or suspends the PC's hardware inputs when you use it as a monitor and have its input switched to that.

I think its the second one (freeze's the hardware input) since it seems to come back immediately upon unplugging the HDMI.

Forgot to mention; if it *were* to keep the HID alive, you could use ShareMouse to try to share the touchscreen.

I'll look into that one.

Bone.... while I think that could work, a VNC isn't exactly what I'm looking for. I was hoping to find something that would mimic a driver so you could just plug it in. If that means ignoring the HDMI completely and just going through the USB for both the display signal and touch then I'm fine with that. That is what I was looking for when I found out it was an HDMI Input not an output.

Most of the lighting consoles are very network intensive and they have a lot going on, so I'd prefer to keep this off of the network side of things and more towards the peripherals side. I'm not nearly to this level, but I use the same consoles that they control stuff like the Olympics, Superbowl, World Cup, most large concerts and festivals and every other huge event around the world and it all uses networking to communicate between everything.

Sorry, I try not be argumentative and shoot peoples stuff down...I'm just trying to find a very specific avenue to take this if I can find it or it even exists.

 

[Spectre]

It may not exist - you need to find out what the Horizon does with its hardware inputs when it is being used as a monitor first before you go beyond this stage. If it simply ignores any input, there won't be a solution.

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

Since sleep is for wusses and my brain is thinking too much right now anyways, I decided to find out about what is happening when the HDMI is plugged in.

It appears that both assumptions were wrong, and it neither goes to sleep nor does it cut off input. I used remote desktop to connect my laptop to the Horizon so I could see what was going on with the monitor plugged in and the touch screen appears to react as normal. It turns the speakers off too, but I started and stopped Youtube videos and such and as soon as I unplugged the HDMI it went straight back (with minimal lag) to normal.

I also tried Share Mouse, but it seems to not see the touch input. I'm not sure if there is a work around or not yet, but I'll keep poking around. It works over wifi/ethernet though, so its still not ideal. Might try to find another KVM style application or hardware that does that for me via USB though. Still hoping to find a driver spoof or something like that though...something to install on the Horizon that makes it output its touch that is plug and play. I know... a lot to ask.

 

[Matt2000]

Thanks for looking. It appears that app is more about using your phone as a remote desktop similar to splashtop and others.

Sorry didn't see the second part that mentions an app. I saw Windows platforms supported at the top and assumed that meant both sides. That'll teach me for looking quickly.

Personally I'd probably bust the back off and and find out how the touch screen connects. It's probably USB but hard-wired. Not recommended though obviously.