# An out of left field idea that im not even close to smart enough to try



## zathus (Jan 2, 2012)

So, This might be impossible or not desirable enough for someone to even try.. but instead of a nav bar, with all the buttons.. would it be even possible to have something like a button in the middle.. no background, just a single button.. swipe left, it triggers back.. swipe right.. opens menu or something, swipe up.. search, tap it., you go home.. long press it.. opens resents..

Its a little ridiculous i know! but I can see it in my head, and its cool as shit!... in my head lol

something like this maybe (matching whatever theme or stock)


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## Mikefrostlpn (Jun 7, 2011)

I actually think something like that would be sweet as hell


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## thesoldier (Jan 25, 2012)

That is actually a genius idea, patent it quick! Haha seriously great idea.

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## DaveGoldbach (Oct 14, 2011)

That would be hella tight!


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## zwade01 (Jun 16, 2011)

Fantastic idea! I'd use that for sure.

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## sandfreak (Jun 11, 2011)

I like it too....sounds kinda sorta similar to the octo or quad lock but in the navbar instead.

On a somewhat related note but not as cool or clever, I've been wondering recently if animated softkeys would be possible.

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## APeaceOfStrange (Jul 24, 2011)

When I opened this thread I was expecting the worst, but this is a cool idea.

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## Ianxcom (Jun 29, 2011)

I like swiping so I approve this idea. Also like with miui when you are in the notification pull down ans where you can swipe right to get the toggles and left to go back to the notifications.

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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

Sounds sort of like palm os

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## Turbo Slaab (Dec 25, 2011)

I'd hit that......

Or swype it.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

You ever seen the app ss flicka? Its in the early stages and the guy who made it is smart as hell. But its a little box and you bring it up a couple of ways: you can shake the phone, or set it to use the proximity sensor (kind of waving your hand) to open it up. Once it opens you can set a bunch of different apps/ functions widgets/ whatever to the left, right, up, down...

..you know what? I'm doing a horrible job explaining it. Just check out the app; its the one with a blue circle with two yellow s's.

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## wera750 (Sep 23, 2011)

Thus is a great idea! Now if Zaphod can make it happen.... 

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## Schoat333 (Jun 14, 2011)

I was expecting to see a gesture mod at some point. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet.


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## miketoasty (Jun 10, 2011)

Search for xda lmt. It has gesture commands for back menu etc, so just remove nav bar and use that. Basically the same idea as OP.

Here's a link to it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1330150

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## Awexit76 (Jul 1, 2011)

miketoasty said:


> Search for xda lmt. It has gesture commands for back menu etc, so just remove nav bar and use that. Basically the same idea as OP.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

Ditto

Even the pie menu in lmt is exactly that. Swipe right for recent, up for back, etc


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## sublimaze (Nov 17, 2011)

LMT Launcher lets you navigate via gestures, it works fairly well

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## Dreamersipaq (Jan 30, 2012)

I think you guys are missing the point. The idea is not to introduce more steps to perform an action, but less. I like the OP's idea a LOT! If you used WebOS with a Pre that gesture area was a god send. You could do just about anything with the swipe of a finger.

The only thing I'd suggest is that instead of having a circle just leave the whole area as a gesture area...
Swipe Left -> go back
Swipe Right -> Task Manager / App List
Double Tap -> Home


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## SpinningHook (Jun 15, 2011)

If someone could get a game developer to let them use the code for an onscreen d pad and then assign the soft key commands to the directions (possibly have a menu for customization), I could see that working quite well.


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## nuclearemp (Sep 12, 2011)

this will probably cause another iPhone lawsuit


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## zathus (Jan 2, 2012)

SpinningHook said:


> If someone could get a game developer to let them use the code for an onscreen d pad and then assign the soft key commands to the directions (possibly have a menu for customization), I could see that working quite well.


 that's quite literally exactly what I was thinking!

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## SpinningHook (Jun 15, 2011)

Cool. I think it would have to be combined with the fullscreen mod or at least parts of its code so that it doesn't double up with the soft keys bar. Also, the center of the pad could be held down for a second or two in order to bring up the customisation menu.

edit: In thinking about the logistics of this, if it were to be a widget used in conjunction with the fullscreen mod, that might work to some extent, but it would have to coded to allow for resizing customization. That would essentially have to be incorporated to allot for the fact that people will be using different launchers that will have different grid patterns, i.e. some might have even numbered fields and some odd and that could effect whether or not the pad is centered on the screen or not (I am assuming that most people would prefer centered). And of course, it would have to be somehow incorporated into the OS framework, so that it will pervasively open up in all apps, and not just with the launcher. Maybe it could be included with a kernel or indirectly via a kernel specific tweak.


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## Turdbogls (Jun 7, 2011)

this is actually a pretty cool idea. next feature for AOKP maybe?


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## sandhawk (Apr 12, 2012)

LMT does this

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1330150


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## SpinningHook (Jun 15, 2011)

sandhawk said:


> LMT does this
> 
> http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1330150


Kinda, but it's not entirely the same thing that I am talking about or what I believe the OP to be referring to either. LMT (from what I have read in the XDA forum) seems to be open gestures with the side screen "PieControl," like the ics browser quick commands, but it's not a centered, stationary circular dock with customizable soft key commands for the x and y axis.


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## sublimaze (Nov 17, 2011)

LMT lets you choose between off-screen pie controls like browser+, or full screen gestures. I had it set up using full screen gestures, but it wasn't my cup of tea. And it does not display a circular ring.

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## kingkurmudgeon (Feb 19, 2012)

I just tried LMT too and it doesn't really... "feel right," if that makes any sense. I had the same idea as Hook, to have the gestures replace my soft keys completely but the majority of the configurable gestures are double-swipe, and since it's more or less layered on top of everything instead of somehow integrated in Android, there are small hiccups, like making homescreens/menus/what-have-you move/scroll. Definitely a great idea and it seems to be the best application of that idea currently but it just wasn't gelling enough for me to really use it. What the OP is describing is ideal, imo


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## zathus (Jan 2, 2012)

LMT is cool and all but no, its not what im talking about. It has some parts of what I would like to see but not all =) Im gona toy with some ideas I was having tonight after work. I think i might be able to get something like this working.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

Gesture control on the market. Its like two finger swipe down for home, two finger swipe left for back, yadda yadda. I think you can even set like 4 point touch gestures

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## alatedseraph (Jan 23, 2012)

The idea is to get this built into a rom so that its controls always have priority. Couple things I would like to add though, it needs to be able to swipe away, and give the option to overlay, like novas new dock options, I say this because the only reason some people would like this is if it doesnt take up the same screen real estate as the normal nav bar, otherwise itd be better to have 5 buttons doing almost all the same actions possible.

I would also like to see what people think of a gesture option that brings up a directional keypad, remember the days when you had a hard keypad or a trackball and it was easier to click things sometimes? I think that would be an awesome built in feature. Or maybe its like, Swipe up with 3 fingers for focus to be given to directional pad swipes, an invisible pad overlays what your looking at, and swiping left up down or right will cause the key pad to click the key, or it could just recognize clicking in certain quadrants of the screen.


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## zathus (Jan 2, 2012)

I tried to tweak some stuff to make this possible but I failed lol if LMT had an option to be at the bottom,. then you get rid of the nav bar and app drawer, you would have a full screen but have the pie keys at the bottom. would be better imo. I tried to tweak LMT to be in landscape all the time (so the keys would be at the bottom in portrait). didnt work


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## Joesyr (Feb 7, 2012)

zathus said:


> I tried to tweak some stuff to make this possible but I failed lol if LMT had an option to be at the bottom,. then you get rid of the nav bar and app drawer, you would have a full screen but have the pie keys at the bottom. would be better imo. I tried to tweak LMT to be in landscape all the time (so the keys would be at the bottom in portrait). didnt work


I haven't played with navbar replacements in a while (I'm happy just shrinking mine a bit via custom rom settings; I find overlays to get in the way in one way or another), but I think button savior might let you set that behavior.

Could be wrong, though.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

Was gonna say gesture controls but I forgot I already did lol

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## mvp123 (Jul 14, 2011)

This sound like the app clutch pad 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...sMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zdGV2ZWFsYnJpZ2h0LmNsdXRjaCJd . It sucks that the dev hasnt updated it in over a year since it doesn't work with ICS. I was hoping to get rid of my navigation bar with that app.

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## azndan2 (Sep 29, 2011)

I'm using LMT launcher right now. It's like cyanogen mod's lockscreen gestures except it works in every app. give it a try guys


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## zathus (Jan 2, 2012)

I've tried it. I don't like that it has to be on the right or left of the screen for the pie commands. If it was on the bottom then it would be so much better. I tried Modding it to do this but failed.

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## azndan2 (Sep 29, 2011)

Try the gestures. Once you get used to them they're way more useful than pie commands.


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