04 April 2006

Custom Front-End Design for Media Engine

Written by Yours Truly ( )
Published on April 4th, 2006 @ 10:25:32 pm, using 358 words, 2194 views

Categories: the software, the headunit, computer

NOTE: The Acura ITX uses Roadrunner as its front-end software.
To view the Roadrunner screens in use on the Acura ITX system, follow the links below:

Acura ITX front-end design for Roadrunner in blue
Acura ITX front-end design for Roadrunner in green

The splash screens you see here were designed for Media Engine during the system planning stages and were never put into use. I spent several days testing both the RoadRunner and Media Engine front-end applications for the touchscreen interface. The system is being designed to be 99% operable without a keyboard (though I'll probably keep one in the glovebox for those unforeseeable scenarios when one is necessary). I initially had a tough time getting RoadRunner to work in my particular hardware environment, though have since managed to get it running properly.

Acura-ITX custom daytime navigation skin for Media Engine.

So I began experimenting with the Media Engine front-end, which installed and ran very smoothly on the MII-12000 mainboard, using only the onboard video. This will allow me to keep the single PCI slot available for future shortwave radio or video surveillance installation. The Media Engine front-end application provides functionality for touchscreen operation of music, playlist management, radio, movies, gps satellite, and external applications which can be configured to run through the Media Engine interface. It also provides for environment auto-switching from daytime to nighttime interface. The image to the right shows a custom navigation design which I created for use with Media Engine's daytime configuration.

Acura-ITX custom night-time navigation skin for Media Engine.

This is the second design which I created for use with Media Engine. This design will be the basis for the night-time navigation screen for the Acura-ITX system. The layout is nearly identical to the daytime environment, but is darkened to reduce distracting glare while driving at night. The glassy buttons in both layouts are all that is needed to navigate through music, movies, gps satellite, radio, and external applications.

This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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mini-itx, mobile, computing, touchscreen, roadrunner, media engine, interface, in-dash, navigation, gps, mp3, music, movies, satellite, keyboard

Permanent Link2 comments  •  Trackback (0)

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Comment from: Mitch (CarComp of MediaEngine)

Just thought I'd drop a line and say thanks for giving mediaengine a positive review. I'm considering developing a new version based on directx.

Mitch (CarComp)
MediaEngine Creator / Developer
http://www.mediaengine.org

Permanent Link 05/15/08 @ 15:27

Comment from: Yours Truly [Member]

Hi Mitch... Positive review yes... I thought Media Engine was a decent app when I tested it but I did end up going with RoadRunner as I found it to be more flexible for my specific needs. I will say that I haven't tested it since that time so I can't speak to what advances have been made with Media Engine.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. :)

Permanent Link 05/16/08 @ 14:15

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