As usual, backup all your messages (SMS / E-mail / etc) before using this tutorial.
We will perform a total reset so everything will be lost.

Oh and you’re doing this at own risk … (so for those who care, your warranty will be void).

Requirements

• A T-mobile G1 USA or a T-mobile G1 UK (Firmware version does not matter, RC30 or RC8 will work)
• An USB cable
• A Micro SD memorycard (comes with the G1)
• A fully charged battery
• A MS Windows / Linux or Mac OS X system

Downgrading

1. Download the factory reset firmware.
   If you have the USA version download this file: HappyNewYear.zip
   If you have the UK version download this file: HappyNewYearUK.zip

   MD5sum: (HappyNewYear.zip) = 4f0efb2037524a06bda26f286bba474d
   MD5sum: (HappyNewYearUK.zip) = b253b71fad2ed0352bcb58c4966b9a25

2. Connect your G1 to your computer and mount the SD card.
3. Backup the content of the SD card.
4. Format the SD card to FAT32 mode.
5. Unzip the zipfile and copy the file DREAIMG.nbh to the SD card.
6. Rename DREAIMG.nbh to DREAIMG.NBH (might also work without the capitals…, but better save than sorry).
7. Unmount the SD card.
8. Unplug the USB cable.
9. Turn the G1 off.
10. Hold the Camera button and press the Power button to start in bootloader mode.
11. Press the power button to start the downgrade to RC29 USA or RC7 UK
    (this takes a few minutes, dont interupt the progress)
12. After finishing, softreset the G1 to reboot (Hold Call, Menu and End).

If everything went well, you are now a proud owner of a rooted G1. Sign in with your Gmail account. If the login fails, you might need to add your APN settings (use the Menu button to add a new APN profile).

If you don’t have a dataplan, it is also possible to use wifi to sign in. Follow the instructions from modmygphone.com.

Installing testkeys

Before we can install a custom firmware we need to install the test sign keys.

1. Go to the market and download the Telnet application.
2. (optional) Press menu and selection the settings. Click Sound & display. Disable the screen timeout by selecting Never timeout. If the screen is locked while we are installing the test keys, the telnet connection might be interrupted … (Trust me, you don’t want this , my heart skipped a beat when it happened here…)
3. Mount your SD card (connect the USB cable).
4. Delete everything that is on the SD card.
5. Download this package: AndroidMod.zip (mirror)
6. Unpack the AndroidMod zipfile.
7. Copy recovery_testkeys.img and boot_nosecure.img on the SD card.
8. Unmount the SD card.
9. Unplug the USB cable.

On your G1, everything you type on your keyboard is also being run in a hidden console with root permissions. So we will now start a telnet deamon in root mode.
Note: There are 2 ways to install the test keys, one is from the SD card and the other one is using ADB (from the android SDK). I recommend using the SD card method because this is easier for non-developers.

1. First I recommend rebooting your phone after installing the telnet client and disabling the screen timeout.
2. Press enter a few times to clear the hidden console.
3. Type telnetd and press enter (It will open up the contact search while you’re typing but don’t worry this is normal).
4. Open the application tab and start the telnet client.
5. Keep the settings (server: localhost with port: 23), press connect to server.
6. You should now see a console.
7. Hit enter a few times to clear the line.
8. We first need to mount the system, type:
   mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
9. Next we need to copy the keys to the system dir, type (one command at the time!):
   cd /system
   cat /sdcard/recovery_testkeys.img > recovery.img
10. Now its time to flash the image, type:
    flash_image recovery recovery.img
11. Turn off the phone.
12. Hold the Home + Power button to start in recovery mode.
13. If you did it the right way you will see a triangle with an exclamation mark.
14. Press ALT+L
15. It should now say something like Android system recovery utility Using test keys.

Your phone should now be ready for custom firmwares.

Customizing the bootloader

Installing the bootloader allows developers to test patches from the android code base (cupcake, Cupcake, CUPCAKE!). The following instructions will work on any G1 that is using the custom firmwares from Jesusfreke (v1.3). The following instructions will work on any G1 using RC29.

The installation process is the same as installing a new android os update. This update wont overwrite your OS (Bootloader and OS are two separate parts)

1. Mount your SD card (connect the USB cable).
2. Delete everything that is on the SD card.
3. Download the file EngBootloader_v2_NoSigCheck.zip from this XDA topic (mirror)

   MD5sum: (EngBootloader_v2_NoSigCheck.zip) = 8008e01cb2c35e06b704e4dfb624ce4e

4. Rename the file to update.zip and copy the file to the SD card.
5. Unmount the SD card.
6. Unplug the USB cable.
7. Turn off the G1
8. Boot into recovery mode (Home + Powerbutton)
9. Press Alt-L (View console)
10. Press Alt-S (Install update)
    This takes a few minutes, xda states: “Take particular caution not to interrupt the process, as a damaged SPL block will irreversibly brick your G1.”
11. When the update is done, restart your phone.
12. To confirm that you installed it properly, power off your G1.
13. Power on your G1 with Power + Camera button.
14. You should now see a picture of three androids on skateboards.
15. Exit the bootloader by pressing Call + Menu + End.

If you want to revert to the original G1 bootloader, use the file attached in the XDA topic.

Updating to a rooted firmware

Note: This section is a bit outdated.

If you are unfamiliar with the different types of firmwares, I recommend to use either the Official ADP firmware (1.5) from HTC or a customized firmware made by Jesusfreke. If you’re upgrading to a new firmware, be sure to apply the radio update before the system/recovery image.

General instructions for updating to a new firmware
(Outdated, new Jesusfreke firmwares are available)

Its now time to install the custom firmware. Currently there are three flavours available:

• RC30 (USA) Jesusfreke v1.3
• RC8 (UK) Jesusfreke v1.3
• ADP1 (Android Development Phone) Jesusfreke v1.3

If you are a normal user that wants to have root access, install RC8.
If you are an advanced developer that wants to do kernal hacking, install ADP1.

Unless you’re using a T-mobile USA sim, do not install RC30 because this version comes with myfaves. Depending on your provider this could cost money. You will also get messages from your provider about sms messages that could not be delivered.

The RC8 and ADP1 release comes with all the apps of RC30 (excluding myfaves) so you wont miss anything.

I will now continue on how to install RC8 on your rooted G1.

1. Mount your SD card (connect the USB cable).
2. Delete everything that is on the SD card.
3. Download RC8 from this topic (filename JFv1.3_RC8.zip) (mirror)
4. Rename the file to update.zip and copy the file to the SD card.
5. Unmount the SD card.
6. Unplug the USB cable.
7. Turn off the G1
8. Boot into recovery mode (Home + Powerbutton)
9. Press Alt-L (View console)
10. If you updating from RC30 to RC8 it might be wise to perform a wipe (Alt-W).
11. Press Alt-S (Install update)
    This takes a few minutes, do not interrupt the process or you may brick your phone.
12. When the update is done, restart your phone.
13. Congrats! If no errors appeared you should now have a properly working RC8 with root access.
14. You can now sign in with your gmail account (You probably need to fill out the APN settings again).

Because we changed our signature keys to use test sign keys, updates from T-mobile or google wont install anymore (OTA Updates). Future updates need to be installed manual.

Used sources / Credits

• HTC Dream Service Manual (Mirror).
• Downgrade instructions by Disconnect.
• Modded recovery and boot images by Jesusfreke.
• Wiki entry on installing the testkeys at ModMyGphone.
• Getting root on a G1 at XDA.
• Custom firmwares by Jesusfreke.
  (RC30 USA, RC8 UK, ADP1 Android development phone) v1.3.
• Engineering bootloader for G1 posted by Jashu.

Special thanks to

Disconnect, hmepass and JesusFreke for helping me downgrade my G1.

Because our old table (which we used for the multitouch performance experiments) was moved to the NEMO Science Center in Amsterdam, we had to develop a new multitouch system from scratch. Based on our experiences of building the previous multitouch table, we carefully choose our new hardware components (such as the camera and digital projector).

Supercomputing 2008

Supercomputing is an international conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC08, November 15-21, 2008 Austin Convention Center). In collaboration with the Systems- and Networking Engineering Group of the University of Amsterdam we developed software and hardware for our project called Interactive Networks.

Our project consists out of several parts:

• The multitouch table; used as an input/interaction device (Rear illumination)
• Multiple (linux) computers using custom kernal software called streamline
• A controller that processes events from the multitouch table to the computer nodes using streamline (and vice versa).
• The Interactive Network Visualizer (the visualization and manipulation software on the MT table)

The project focuses on stream manipulation in a token based network. In Amsterdam we created a physical network of computer nodes (16+). Each of these computer nodes has the streamline module installed. Depending on the task of the node, a node can be the following:

• A producer (A node that is capable of delivering a video/content stream)
• A router (A node that is able to route packages)
• A consumer (A node that is capable of receiving and displaying the stream content)

In the current setup we have 4 producers (each with different video content), 8 routers and 4 consumers (Mac mini’s connected to HD screens with VLC installed to display UDP video streams).

In order to stream video content from the producer to a consumer node, users can simply switch to the ‘route planner’ mode and draw a line from node to node. When the user completes a path (stream), the result is submitted to the controller. The controller checks if the nodes are connected and instructs the nodes how the incoming packages should be handled. Normally it is difficult to distinguish different data streams from each other. However, in our system we added a ‘token’ (color) to each stream. This allows us to distinguish a stream on a particular node and transmit it to its destination. Our system has support for multicasting and streams containing cycles (unique!).

Because streams are tokenized we can also manipulate particular streams on the node itself. By double tapping a node, we can view the internals of this particular node. All streams that passes through this node can be viewed and modified. For this particular demo we added an option to add a sampler. The sampler allows the user to set a value of how many packages should be dropped.

By using standard Linux tools we are also able to measure the network throughput on a node, the load on a node, the used bandwidth between two nodes and the jitter on a connection. These values are visualized in our software.

Videocontent

For our demo we stream high definition videos from The Netherlands to the USA over an 4 GBit internet connection. We are using movies that were made in Blender, namely: Big Buck Bunny and the Elephants dream.

Live videofeed

On our dutch stand we have three live camera streams showing different projects, be sure to check those out: webcam overview

Other multitouch projects at SC08:

We certainly aren’t the only ones with a multitouch table at SC08, so far I’ve seen the following:

1. RENCI Vis Group Multi-Touch Blog
   Developing multitouch hardware and applications for research and experimentation.
2. EVL | Multi-Touch LCD Table Prototype (Tactile)
   A high resolution multitouch device created from a LCD panel Video!
3. Enthought (Scientific Computing Solutions)
   A fast and responsive multitouch solution using a python backend. They are located at the stand of Western Scientific
4. MS Surface (on the HPC stand)

Photos

Photos of our setup can be found after the break!

This library provides all the software you need to set up your own FTIR multitouch display. It handles interfacing with a video camera or webcam, blob detection and tracking and calibration. It provides a very simple interface for your programs to listen for touch events such as finger pressed down, finger moved, and finger released.

Project URL:

• David Wallin, author of Touchlib (blog)
• Touchlib
• Touchlib SVN

Download Touchlib SVN build:

If you need more precision (because of image distortion/barrel distortion), use the 2nd version (double calibration grid).

• Touchlib (speedfix) (2361) - 785.69 kB
• Touchlib (double calibration grid + speedfix) (2058) - 3.26 MB

Building Touchlib from the SVN:

• Building the windows version (XP / Vista)
• Building the linux version using Ubuntu 7.04/8.04
• Building the linux version using Fedora Core 9

Download (non-official) reference manual:

• Unofficial Touchlib Reference (2703) - 104.86 kB

Software:
Fedora Core 9 (i386)
Also compatible with Fedora Core 10 (i386)

Installation instructions:

1. I’m asuming you have a clean installation of Fedora Core 9 (with Software Development packages) installed.
2. First install all dependencies:
   # su -
   # yum install cmake svn opencv opencv-devel freeglut freeglut-devel fftw2 fftw2-devel libXmu libXmu-devel
   # exit
3. Now to install osc, checkout the latest version on the SVN:
   # cd ~
   # mkdir multitouch
   # cd multitouch
   # mkdir oscpack
   # cd oscpack
   # svn co https://www.smartelectronix.com:9000/repos/osc/oscpack/trunk/ .
   (or you could get the source oscpack_1_0_2.zip)Unfortuntately rev. 76 of oscpack is not compatible with gcc 4.3. Before running make it is required to make some fixes in the sourcecode.

   Use your favorite editor and edit the following files:

   tests/OscUnitTests.cpp
   - add #include <cstring>

   osc/OscPrintReceivedElements.cpp
   - add #include <cstring>

   tests/OscSendTests.cpp
   - add #include <cstdlib>

   tests/OscReceiveTest.cpp
   - add #include <cstdlib>

   examples/OscDump.cpp
   - add #include <cstring>
   - add #include <cstdlib>

   Next type the following commands:

   # cd oscpack/
   # make
   # su -
   # cd /home/username/multitouch/oscpack
   # make install
   # exit

4. Now compile touchlib:
   # cd /home/username/multitouch
   # mkdir touchlib
   # cd touchlib
   # svn checkout http://touchlib.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ .
   # cmake . (or “ccmake .” if you want a GUI)
   # make

5. Touchlib should now be ready to use.

More information:
http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.3/porting_to.html

Known bugs:
Due a problem with the OpenCV library in Linux, Touchlib might crash after a few minutes.

A fix for rev.393 is available here.
A mirror to the file: Touchlib race condition fix rev.393

(old)
A fix for rev.90 is available in here.
A mirror to the file: Touchlib race condition fix rev.90

(Optional) Import the touchlib project in Eclipse (3.4+ Ganymeade):

1. Open up a console and go to the touchlib directory
2. Type:
   # cmake -G”Eclipse CDT4 – Unix Makefiles” .
3. Two new files should be added to the directory (.project and .cproject).
4. Launch Eclipse.
5. Import the project using File -> Import…
6. Select General -> Existing projects into workspace.
7. Browse to your touchlib directory.
8. After selecting the directory, the project should be visible in the overview.
9. Keep “Copy projects into workspace” unchecked.
10. Done!

• Touchlib compiled libraries, revision 400 (10 -03-2009) – recommended!
• Unofficial Touchlib Reference (2703) - 104.86 kB

Old versions:

• Touchlib (double calibration grid + speedfix) (2058) - 3.26 MB compiled libraries, revision 395 (09 nov 2008)
• Touchlib (785) - 2.81 MB compiled libraries, revision 395 (26 feb 2008)
  - contains the new barrel distortion correction filter
  - instructions can be found in the barrel distortion correction tool package
  - memory leak bug fixed
  - improved performance (1.5~2.0x faster)
• Touchlib (speedfix) (2361) - 785.69 kB compiled libraries, revision 393 speedfix (21 apr 2008)
  - Removed the Sleep(32) from bool CTouchScreen::process() in file CTouchScreen.cpp line 274
  - Caused the processing loop to stall for 32ms which is in my opinion unneeded. This would result (in some cases) in lower performance.
  - Might not be safe for single core cpu’s
  - This version does not support videoplayback (from avi files), without the sleep function the video plays too quick.
• FLOSC v2.0.4 (750) - 93.39 kB (Osc -> Flash proxy) including TUIO simulator
• osc (574) - 44.82 kB – stable version without fiducial support

Multi-touch applications

• Touch tracer v0.2a (3027) - 14.62 kB
• Multitouch Puzzle Game (2787) - 1.65 MB (flash)
• Multitouch Media Application Pro v3 (7407) - 2.25 MB (flash) – Requires Adobe AIR

Miscanelous tools

• Beamer Latency Measurement Tool v0.2 (773) - 100.35 kB – Windows binaries
• Beamer Latency Measurement Tool v0.2 Sourcecode (386) - 11.05 kB – Linux/Mac OS X
• Barrel distortion correction tool (773) - 11.56 kB
• Barrel distortion correction tool Source code (400) - 11.13 kB

Optional downloads

• Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Redist. Package (download from Microsoft)

Presentations

• SOCO guest presentation (874) - 731.86 kB – A brief introduction to FTIR and DI.

Thesis work

• Master thesis:
  “Multi-touch displays: design, applications and performance evaluation” (2337)
  Mirror: SCS – Master of Science theses
  (1.4 mb)
• Final presentation:
  multitouch_presentation.pdf (2562)
  (26.6 mb, includes embedded wmv videos)
• Multitouch video:
  multitouch-videomix1.wmv (1726)
  (76.3 mb, high quality wmv)

At the beginning of september I got hold of a short-throwing-distance beamer (digital projector) of 3M (type 3M DMS 700). The specifications looked pretty impressive, and we could finally get rid of the mirror… However during testing the hardware with our new firewire camera (less latency than the Philips spc900nc) we noticed that there was a (noticable) delay between touch and display on the table surface.
Comparing the input of the firewire camera on our CRT showed barely any latency, so perhaps the issue was on the beamer…
We decided to create a latency measurement tool based on this paper. The application moves a bar at a fixed speed along 60 positions in the screen. The screen refreshes 60 times per second (the beamer runs at 60Hz max). To measure the difference it is required to take a photo of the CRT display and the result of the beamer in one shot. The difference in position (of the bar) can be used to calculate the latency.

Our test results:
3M DMS 700 (1024 x 768) – about 100ms
Canon LV-S1E (800 x 600) – less than 16.67ms

So it seems like our simple Canon office beamer has barely any latency compared to our 3M short throw beamer. If this is an issue depends on the purpose of your multitouch table. If you are planning to use it on non time related task such as a simple photo application or the puzzle application the 3M latency might not be a problem at all. If you are planning to measure the performance of multi-touch table devices this might be something to think about.

Because I could not find much information about latency of beamers in general (as far as I know, no manufacturer specifies this in the manual) I would like to ask if multi-touch enthausiasts could measure there own beamers. Below at the download section I have included the measurement tool.
All you will need is a camera which is capable of setting the shutterspeed manual (it needs to be 1/60 sec). Please post your results in the comments sections. Don’t forget to include a nice photo and some details about the used beamer (brand, type, native resolution, throwingdistance, etc…).
Note: you will need to turn on vsync in your display controlpanel.

Hopefully we will be able to make a list of recommended beamers here .

*update today@23:40*
My multi-touch developer friend Pawel ‘solydzajs’ Solyga just submitted an update to the BMLT application.
New version (v0.2) with additional features:
- command-line parameters instead of static values in main.cpp (which
requires recompiling)
- print usage when wrong number of command-line parameters
- makefile for Mac OS X (tested, works nice)

Downloads:
Multitouch Puzzle Game

Beamer Latency Measurement Tool v0.2 – windows binaries
Beamer Latency Measurement Tool v0.2 Sourcecode – linux/mac os X users should build the tool manual, Makefiles are included

Discussion at nuigroup forums [link]

Howto: Compile Touchlib in Windows
Howto: Compile Touchlib in Linux

Both compile instructions apply to subversion rev.73 of touchlib. If you followed the Howto’s and still have some trouble please post the problem in the comment section.

Software:
Ubuntu 7.04

Installation instructions:

1. I’m asuming you have a clean installation of Ubuntu 7.04
2. First install the dependencies:
   # sudo apt-get install cmake libcv1 libcvaux1 libcv-dev libcvaux-dev libglut libglut-dev fftw-dev g++ libxmu-dev libglut3-dev subversion
   
3. Now to install osc, checkout the latest version on the SVN:
   # svn co https://www.smartelectronix.com:9000/repos/osc/oscpack/trunk/ [yourdirname]
   (or you could get the source oscpack_1_0_2.zip)
   # make
   # sudo make install

   If osc fails to compile and you’re using gcc 4.3, check out how to fix osc in my Fedora Core 9 instructions.

4. Now compile touchlib:
   # mkdir touchlib
   # cd touchlib
   # svn checkout http://touchlib.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ .
   # cmake . (or “ccmake .” if you want a GUI)
   # make
   
5. Touchlib should now be ready to use.

More information:
Ubuntu topic on NUIgroup

Known bugs:
Due a problem with the OpenCV library in Linux, Touchlib might crash after a few minutes.

A fix for rev.393 is available here.
A mirror to the file: Touchlib race condition fix rev.393

(old)
A fix for rev.90 is available in here.
A mirror to the file: Touchlib race condition fix rev.90

It now supports adding images on-fly. Just connect your digital camera by using your usb transfer cable (or if you have a memorycard reader that would be even better) and all your images will be downloaded to the multitouch desktop. Your camera should be using the DCIM standard).

Since the Pro version is using Adobe AIR it is no longer needed to perform a special trick to get the filelists of the videos and images. Please read the readme.txt for more information.

To run the application it is required to download the runtime enviroment, at this moment only versions for Windows and MacOS computers are available. A Linux version should be available next year.

Download:
Multitouch Media Application Pro v2a
Adobe AIR – required

Personal

Name: Laurence Muller
Interests: Music, Sports, Photography, Web Development, Programming and Emulation.
Current education:

1. Bachelor of Engineering
   (Algemene Operationele Technologie) (June 2005)
   Hogeschool van Amsterdam
2. Master of Science
   (Grid Computing, Computational Science / Computer Science) (July 2008)
   The University of Amsterdam

Targets: Doing research in the field of computer graphics, scientific visualization and/or HCI.
Currently employed by: Harvard University.
Curriculum Vitae/Resume: Only by request.

Questions and comments about me, this site or articles can be send to:
Email (in Dutch or English): laurence (dot) muller (at) gmail (dot) com

Projects

Current projects I work on in my spare time:

• Dolphin – Open source Gamecube/Wii emulator
• nJoy – Open source Dolphin compatible input plugin (now part of the official part of Dolphin)
• PuruPuru -A nullDC (Dreamcast emulator) compatible input plugin (will be released with the next version of nullDC)
• touchlib – Open source multi-touch development framework
• Multitouch Media Application – Photo and video organizing tool
• Touchsuite – A collection of open source multi-touch enabled applications (using TUIO)
• fIRC – Free IRC chat application for Android devices (google code project page)

Tools / applications I developed in the past:

• VLC now playing v0.1 (beta) – mIRC plugin to display the current VLC video
• mircTunes v0.1 – mIRC plugin to display the current iTunes song
• Descent 3 Hex Tool – Hex colour tool hack for Descent 3
• Chip8 emulator – Chip8 interpreter

Some websites I developed:

• PCSX2.net – Playstation 2 emulator (PHP including some AJAX technology)
• Dolphin-emu.com – Gamecube/Wii emulator (PHP)

Skills

Programming and scripting languages:

• Actionscript 3 / Adobe AIR
• C/C++ (including Linux)
• C# / .NET/WPF
• Java (Android)
• Javascript
• mySQL
• PHP
• Python

Programming Libraries and Toolkits:

• Android SDK
• DirectX 9
• OpenGL / GLUT / OpenSceneGraph
• FMOD
• PSP SDK (an Open Source SDK for the Playstation Portable)
• SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library)
• VTK (The Visualization ToolKit)
• MS Surface SDK

Design and drawing applications:

• 3D Studio MAX
• AutoCAD
• Paintshop Pro / Gimp

Other technologies, tools and applications:

• Mathematica
• Matlab 5.x/6.x / Simulink
• MS Access (databases)
• SAP (user knowledge)
• CVS/SVN (subversion)
• XHTML / CSS / XML / Smarty Template Engine

FAQ

1. What is www.falcon4ever.com?
It is my old website containing my (old) portfolio and some of my projects and tools.

2. What is www.lauw.biz (offline)?
It is my (old) multi-touch blog, its content has now been moved to this domain.