Set Mouseposition in WPF

Question

I'm going to replace my mouse by Kinect gestures but I can't find a way to set mouseposition for a WPF app.

Solution 1

You can use the Cursor.Position property found in System.Windows.Forms for this.

As demonstrated on the MSDN documentation for Cursor.Position:

private void MoveCursor()
{
   // Set the Current cursor, move the cursor's Position,
   // and set its clipping rectangle to the form. 

   this.Cursor = new Cursor(Cursor.Current.Handle);
   Cursor.Position = new Point(Cursor.Position.X - 50, Cursor.Position.Y - 50);
   Cursor.Clip = new Rectangle(this.Location, this.Size);
}

If you're looking to do this outside of Windows Forms, you can do a platform invoke on User32's SetCursorPos.

Solution 2

It is not possible using the .NET BCL. However if you really want it you can use native SetCursorPos in User32.dll.

[DllImport("User32.dll")]
private static extern bool SetCursorPos(int x, int y);

As others will most likely point out, you can achieve the same using System.Windows.Forms, however when developing a WPF application prefer use DllImport.

---

If you are going use the Kinect sensor in your application I would personally write a custom WPF control than trying to override the system mouse as:

• You have to think carefully about showing user intent with the Kinect, e.g., to select an option you would have the user hover over the button and display a timer before actioning.
• You want to have a custom visual to represent the location on screen, the traditional cursor is not enough.

At the X360 Kinect conference that I went to earlier this year, almost half the day was dedicated to managing the user experience as it is that different from a simple point-and-click interaction.

If you are interested, I can upload/e-mail the slides from the Kinect conference. They are a good read.

Comments

[Xcalibur37]

You have a good idea there, but typically WPF apps should stay away from System.Windows.Forms if possible.

[Xcalibur37]

Did more research on it. You are correct. It doesn't look like there is a more graceful way to do other than the 2 methods you suggested. +1 for you on that one.

[Krythic]

Would recommend wrapping this in a function that way you're not mixing WPF with Winforms and clashing namespaces.