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, 12352 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.
24 May 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on May 24th, 2006 @ 05:58:58 pm, using 1849 words, 31611 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 (
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Published on April 4th, 2006 @ 10:25:32 pm, using 358 words, 4991 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.
19 July 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on July 19th, 2005 @ 02:56:49 pm, using 174 words, 1407 views
LCD Displays
7" touchscreen motorized housing:
http://www.digitalww.com/indashhousing.htm
7" touchscreen motorized housing (DIY installation guide):
http://www.digitalww.com/VGA_Lilliput-to-Indash_HowTo.html
or, the prebuilt version:
Mp3Car MTS12000 Fully Motorized In-dash VGA Touchscreen LCD $499.99
Character Displays
It would be nice to find a display that matches closely the green lighting of the Acura dashboard, or that matches the color of the aftermarket headunit. I'm considering mounting a small secondary display like these either in the dropdown change-holder on the dashboard, or in the dropdown sunglasses holder on the ceiling. Another option would be to mount it inside the retractable screen, replacing the clock that the screen comes with, since there's no real point to having two clocks in the car.
http://mini-itx.com/store/?c=25
http://www.matrixorbital.com/index.php?cName=lcd-character-lcds
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Kotra - The Bridge (Ukrainian deconstructionist electronic. Woohoo!)
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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