12 September 2007
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Yours Truly (
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Published on September 12th, 2007 @ 12:37:35 pm, using 645 words, 12353 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 (
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Published on September 12th, 2007 @ 12:46:42 am, using 311 words, 3865 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.
23 June 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on June 23rd, 2006 @ 06:35:34 pm, using 431 words, 13111 views
The dashboard installation of the Acura ITX mobile system is now complete. I've reinstalled the rear seats, as well as the entire dashboard and center console, reversing the procedure outlined in the original dashboard removal thread. The reinstallation went pretty smoothly, and once it was complete I removed the protective plastic sheeting over the burlwood woodgrain trim and the touchscreen. (Some of the photos show some remnants of the adhesive layer of the protective plastic sheet which covered the burlwood woodgrain. I've been trying to remove it all but it's pretty tenacious, so any little surface distortions or smudges you may see in the woodgrain panel can be attributed to that. Rest assured they'll be dealt with).
With the mini-itx system installed in the trunk, and the wires run from the battery to the trunk, the system is ready to run (at last!).
Here's an overview shot of the finished installation, showing the screen in a closed position.
If you'd like to see actual captures of the Acura ITX skin, you can see them in the Acura ITX Front-End Design for Roadrunner post, or read the full text of this post to see additional photos of the installed system.
UPDATE: Additional photos have now been added.
This photo shows the main menu screen of the Acura ITX skin I designed for RoadRunner:
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24 May 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on May 24th, 2006 @ 05:58:58 pm, using 1849 words, 31613 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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18 May 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on May 18th, 2006 @ 06:40:28 pm, using 624 words, 13127 views
If you missed the first two parts of this story, you can read all of the details here:
Fabricating the Dashboard Chassis, Pt 1
Fabricating the Dashboard Chassis, Pt 2
The next stage of the Acura car computer fabrication process involved cutting a sheet of plexiglass to function as a stand-off layer between the metal headunit chassis and the burlwood ABS trim which will be visible to the outside...
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01 May 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on May 1st, 2006 @ 08:20:37 pm, using 481 words, 6011 views
It was a very productive weekend for the Acura ITX carPC project. At the end of the day, the dashboard chassis is complete, and the only thing that remains is the faceplate mounting bracket and its related parts.
If you missed Part 1, you can read it here:
Fabricating the Dashboard Chassis, Pt 1
Picking up where we left off, the various cutouts have been made in the chassis which allow it to mount very snugly into the existing mounting bracket that is part of the dashboard in the Acura CL.
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26 April 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on April 26th, 2006 @ 10:29:26 pm, using 344 words, 7904 views
Since I don't yet have any welding ability, I drew a to-scale design schematic and brought it to a local fabricator shop. I supplied them with the outer shell of an old and rather heavy-duty computer case (thanks Alan) from which to cut the necessary metal. The steel was of a sufficiently heavy gauge, and the resulting chassis is fairly stiff. Once in the car, it will be held in place by at least one bolt on each side, two bolts in the front, and a series of L-brackets along the top-rear. That should hold it in rather tightly.
A test-mounting of the Alpine headunit and the MTSVO-SC touchscreen proved a precise and tight fit. Were it not for the vibration in a car computer / mobile computing environment, the two units could reasonably be mounted inside it without screws.
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