How to Use Android Device as an External Touchpad and Keyboard
Has your mouse or keyboard gone haywire, or you just want to sit back on your recliner, relax and type your office document on your laptop. Well now Android users can turn their device into a wireless touchpad and mouse to work on their terminal using their smartphone.
Requirements
- Java 1.6 or greater runtime environment installed on your laptop or PC that will be acting as the server.
- A WiFi transceiver card.
- An Android enabled device.
Installing the application and setting up the server
- Turn on your WiFi and make sure that it is set to dynamic IP configuration.
- Download RemoteDroid server which will act the server on your Pc or laptop.
- Extract the zip file and then run the RemoteDroidServer.jar file using the Java runtime environment.
- Now when the RemoteDroid server is running you will see a line saying “Your IP address is : xx.xx.xx.xx“. You will need this IP at the later stage.
Setting up your Android device
- Download and install the client application RemoteDroid from the Market. You can also scan the blow provided QR code to get the download link.
- Once installed open the application from the menu and enter the IP address of the server (The one you got from Step D above) and hit the connect button.
- voila, the large red square on your phone is the mouse capture touchpad, the two small square act as the left and the right click and the keyboard icon between the green boxes brings up the keyboard.
- Devices with multi-touch capability will have higher advantage.
Features of RemoteDroid
- Touch-screen mouse control
- Two onscreen mouse buttons, with right-click/control-click functionality
- Multi-touch scrolling, and click-and-drag supported
- Use in either portrait or landscape mode
- Works with any WiFi network — no Bluetooth hardware or adapters required
- Compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems.
Note
Only the default Android keyboard in supported in the current version and people accustomed to Swype and 8pen keyboard will have to revert back to conventional keyboard.
