Actually raw touchpad output does work like that, it's just adapted to drive a mouse cursor. Imagine a touchpad mode where the position of the mouse cursor on screen gets mapped to the position of the finger on the pad.
Re:Steam Controller
by bentcorner on Friday September 27, 2013 @09:48PM
(#6460555)
True enough, my (uninformed) guess is that for this to work it would have to be on the level of the touchpad driver.
Touchpads (and mice) don't work like thumbsticks.
Touchpads/mice measure a vector with the size equal to distance traveled. Thumbsticks measure a vector with a size equal to the deflection from center.
Thumbsticks are terrible for mousing tasks (e.g., moving a virtual cursor [rts games]), and mice/touchpads are terrible for thumbstick tasks (e.g., playing a racing/flying game).