Submitted by: KF Cheng
on Tue, 2020-11-10 - 20:30
Touch Portal - Control Complicated Systems with your Fingertips

To introduce an interesting gadget called Touch Portal, which makes you feel like working in a small studio.

Basically it is an external control of your PC or Mac using iPad or Android devices.  A control panel with control buttons can be setup and customized, and then applications on the computer can be activated or controlled from there.  It's like you are controlling your computer using your own mobile devices.

This Touch Portal requires download and installation of the software to the computer, which is free of charge.  The corresponding control apps are available both on Android and iOS devices for free.  Free versions support limited control buttons.  The Pro version supports multiple pages, and the buttons on each page can be adjusted accordingly.

This Touch Portal does not only work on ZOOM meeting.  It is actually more useful in studio recording or live-streaming, where the more complicated software like OBS Studio are used.  As it is programmable, it can be customized for different types of applications.  Standard control panels for different applications are available for download too.

 

Declaration:  The author was an early user of this software, but there is no relationship between the author and developer.  The author has been using this and found it is nice and not expensive, and therefore suggest here as an option for those in need.

The Original Idea

The original idea the author was looking for, is a control panel like this.  When you work on more complicated operations taking care of different things in different scenarios, especially under a time-critical environment, a tool like this would be very helpful.

Control panels like this are available in the market.  It should be quite popular to the professionals, but most of us are not really in the industry.  They can be found and purchased online.

These control panel devices can have the touch keys customized to your own need.  When it is programmable, it has to be linked to the computer.  That's how the initiative came up to look for something similar, programmable, and of course at an affordable cost for those who need to do the job but not professionals.

An Example of External ZOOM Meeting Control Panel

This is one of the screen on my Touch Panel, dedicated for use in ZOOM meetings.  All the buttons on the screen is customized according to my own preference.  The most frequently used controls are available.

This Touch Panel sits on my side table.  Everything within the reach of my fingers.  Control becomes just a matter of a finger touch.

Note: It can only work when my computer and iPad are connected to the same router.

Reminder

This Touch Portal alone does not solve the problem if you are not familiar with the ZOOM meeting operations.  It facilitates the time-critical control software platform management, but it does not replace the more important human factor.

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