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TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

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TrackWeight

Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a precise digital weighing scale

TrackWeight is a macOS application that transforms your MacBook's trackpad into an accurate weighing scale by leveraging the Force Touch pressure sensors built into modern MacBook trackpads.

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To use it yourself:

Open the scale Rest your finger on the trackpad While maintaining finger contact, put your object on the trackpad Try to put as little pressure on the trackpad while still maintaining contact. This is the weight of your object

How It Works

TrackWeight utilizes the Open Multi-Touch Support library by Takuto Nakamura to gain private access to all mouse and trackpad events on macOS. This library provides detailed touch data including pressure readings that are normally inaccessible to standard applications.

The key insight is that trackpad pressure events are only generated when there's capacitance detected on the trackpad surface - meaning your finger (or another conductive object) must be in contact with the trackpad. When this condition is met, the trackpad's Force Touch sensors provide precise pressure readings that can be calibrated and converted into weight measurements.

Calibration Process

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