12 December 2007
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on December 12th, 2007 @ 11:02:53 pm, using 639 words, 13972 views
I designed this version of the ITX skin for Roadrunner touch screens for a fellow car computer enthusiast from Sweden, who contacted me via this site, requesting a custom-designed ITX skin based on the original skin for the Acura ITX carPC project. He intends to display his vehicle, a Nissan 200sx s14a (240sx), in Sweden’s largest car show…
We discussed his needs and requirements over the course of a couple days, settled on a price based on the amount of work required, and I set about designing a series of screens and RoadRunner scripts customized to his vehicle and the color-scheme he requested.
Here is a sampling of the screens which I designed for his car computer system:
1. The Loading screen
This is the screen which is presented after the car computer system has booted up and while the RoadRunner touch screen application is first loading. Here we see the Nissan s14a prior to the overlaying of any of the ITX Skin’s menus.
2. The Main Menu
Once RoadRunner has loaded, the main menu, shown here, is presented to the user. This screen gives access, via the lozenge buttons across the top, to the Audio Player, Audio Browser, Video Players, and embedded GPS navigation.
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24 November 2007
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on November 24th, 2007 @ 10:23:11 am, using 988 words, 15099 views
It was long past due getting rid of Microsoft Streets and Trips and replacing it with iGuidance on the car computer. Don’t get me wrong, S&T is a more-than-decent GPS mapping application, but it falls short in two very important areas when it comes to being used in a mobile computing environment. Specifically, it has very small navigational controls and poor rerouting functionality. Streets and Trips is a great application when running on a small 12- or 13- or 14-inch laptop screen, but when running on the small 7in or 8in touchscreen typical of most carPC installations, the navigational controls are very difficult to manage, especially considering the fact that you’re behind the wheel of a ton of moving steel while trying to navigate the GPS screen. It’s bad enough some of us engage in cellphone conversations or eat breakfast while driving. We don’t need the additional distraction of hunting down minutely-sized buttons on a dashboard mounted touchscreen…
…so I decided, at long last, to integrate iGuidance v4.0 into the Acura ITX mobile computer…
The iGuidance v4.0 application comes with three versions of the program on the installation DVD (PocketPC, Laptop, & UMPC/Car PC). For use in the carPC system I chose, obviously enough, the UMPC/CarPC version. Installation is fairly simple, finishing quickly and requiring a reboot of the computer prior to first-use.
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12 September 2007
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on September 12th, 2007 @ 12:37:35 pm, using 645 words, 12281 views
I redesigned the original Acura ITX blue skin in a green version for night driving. I’m still not quite sure about the exact shade of green and might, in the coming weeks and as time permits, attempt to shift the green to approximate a more striking neon shade of green, as well as increase the saturation of the shadowed areas so that they approach black, providing a higher contrast to the overall design.
The following screens were taken directly from the Photoshop master file for this skin layout, and not from a running copy of Roadrunner. Hence, no in-action text or album art can be seen in these screens. I hope to have some photos up in the next few days which will show the Acura ITX skin running in the car PC environment.
For a different view of this skin, in its active context, feel free to take a look at the original Acura ITX front-end design for Roadrunner post, which displays the same screens (among others) in the original blue version, captured from a running copy of Roadrunner, and which show such things as music playlists, GPS maps, album art and embedded PowerDVD software as it is displayed while the skin is running.
1. The splash/loading screen:
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Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on September 12th, 2007 @ 12:46:42 am, using 311 words, 3852 views
Last weekend I pulled the computer system out of the car to troubleshoot some GPS issues and decided to make some enhancements to the layout of the original Acura ITX skin. Having the system in the car for a year has given me plenty of time to get a feel for how button-placement could be rearranged and optimized on the overall touchscreen interface.
Among the changes I made was the addition of an on-the-fly playlist builder. This will allow me to build individual lists of my favoritest ;) tracks from the overall collection, all gathered in one place, rather than having to load dozens of albums and skip tracks to find the ones I like.
Below is a screencap of the playlist builder screen in the OFF state:
The playlist editor screen also contains a pair of “Favorites” buttons, one each for driver and passenger to build their own custom lists. Music controls as well as access to system gamma and day/night skin-switching are all available from the playlist editor screen, and follows the general design layout of the rest of the interface design.
- Pressing the ‘Add Track’ button, followed by one of the playlist buttons, saves the currently playing track to that playlist.
- Pressing the ‘Open List’ button followed by any of the playlist buttons replaces any current tracks in the system playlist with those stored in the selected playlist.
- Pressing the ‘Save List’ button, followed by any playlist button saves all tracks in the system playlist to that button.
Additional screens in the Acura ITX Blue Skin are displayed in the original Acura ITX Front-End Design for RoadRunner post.
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping…
Ed Rush & Optical - The Original Doctor Shade (Disc 01 Unmixed)
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
24 May 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on May 24th, 2006 @ 05:58:58 pm, using 1849 words, 31507 views
EDIT: Acura ITX Roadrunner skin now available in green
I've been working on a skin/template design for the RoadRunner touchscreen front-end application, since I decided to use RoadRunner instead of Media Engine. Both applications are quite good, but I found RoadRunner to be a little more flexible for the specific applications/tools I plan to use in the CarPC project.
The Acura ITX skin has a built-in audio player, audio browser, on-the-fly playlist builder, movie browser, video player, embedded PowerDVD dvd player, embedded Microsoft Streets and Trips, embedded iGuidance, on-screen keyboard, equalizer and mixer, blind man's screen, external applications menu, and skin switcher.
Yes, I can build custom interface designs for your own car computer project. Get in touch by leaving a comment or contacting me through the email form.
Here are some preliminary designs of the touchscreen interface...
Each of these images is reduced from the 800x600 actual size:
1. The splash/loading screen... The Acura ITX system runs on a stripped down version of Windows Media Center (approx 250Mb) and is configured to bypass the login prompt. When the system boots, or resumes from hibernate mode, the user is immediately presented with this screen:
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04 April 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on April 4th, 2006 @ 10:25:32 pm, using 358 words, 4949 views
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.
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Rapoon - Tin of Drum
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
11 January 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on January 11th, 2006 @ 07:47:02 pm, using 535 words, 4736 views
Testing the EPIA MII-12000 in an open testbed
I had some spare time this evening and got around to setting up the system in an open testbed environment. I figured this would save some time, rather than having to install the board into a micro-ATX case and then removing it again once the final choice of mini-ITX case is made.
I'm currently trying Windows 2000 SP3 in the testbed stage, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the EPIA MII-12000's performance under Windows 2000. Currently the system is pretty bare. I have installed the chipset drivers, along with the drivers for onboard audio, lan, usb, firewire, and video.
I've installed TweakUI from the Windows 2000 PowerToys kit. This allows me to get to the desktop without being prompted for a username and password, adding to the hands-free usability of the overall system environment. Once RoadRunner is installed, I'll configure it to enter directly into the RoadRunner environment on bootup, bypassing the desktop entirely.
Testing a fullscreen vis voiceprint/spectrum analyzer
I've installed WinAmp 2.7 (I can't stand newer versions of WinAmp) and have done some preliminary tests for sound quality and fullscreen visualization responsiveness. The EPIA board handles the Geiss plugin almost flawlessly, which was another nice surprise. I don't plan to run the Geiss Vis on the actual system, but it's nice to know this little board can handle it. The plugin in the attached photo is a fullscreen voiceprint analyzer and spectrum analyzer, which is probably one of the visualizations I'll include in the final install.
I've also installed Alcohol 120% v1.9.5 (Build 2802). I plan to use Alcohol 120% only for its ability to create virtual cd-rom drives. I've set it up with five virtual drives so far. This way I can create images of my GPS Map discs, and mount them virtually on the system. This will allow me to run multiple different GPS Mapping applications, while only having to switch from one mounted disc to another. Additionally, the fact that they'll be running from virtual cd-rom drives means they'll be a lot faster than reading maps from a cd-rom.
The machine has, admittedly, very little software installed on it to this point (I still have to install the actual GPS apps, RoadRunner, and possibly a DVD player), but the system currently goes from a cold boot to the desktop in approx 15 seconds, which isn't too bad. It shuts down from desktop to off in about 4 seconds.
I might try Windows 98Micro (http://www.litepc.com/98micro.html) on this board to see how well it fares, though I worry about compatibility issues primarily with modern GPS apps running under a stripped down version of Windows 98. The nice thing about 98Micro, however, is that people have reported going from cold boot to desktop in under 8 seconds, which would be very nice indeed.
Note: Be sure to read the follow-up article in which the mini-itx system is fully wired and running from a car battery, simulating the vehicle environment and ignition states.
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Talamasca - Illusion World
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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