Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category

From January 10th

“After a whirlwind 48 hours, I made it back safely, tucked into the serenity of my winter abode in Colorado Springs.  A profoundly provincial and somewhat mundane life compared to the hectic world of CES in Las Vegas. Two days there feels like a weeks. After the second and final day , here’s my summary.

You won't see many of THESE in Colorado Springs

Yes, tablets and 3D TVs were everywhere, and ironically, the most boring part of the show.  I was more fascinated with the quirky and creative.  My absolute favorite was Mattel’s Hot Wheels car complete with a tiny camera in the windshield and thumbnail sized, full color LCD display underneath. Mattel also had a cool game that measured brainwave activity and moved a ball back and forth on a track depending on how hard you concentrated.  A few decades ago this was million dollar technology. Now it’s a $59 toy.

CES 2011: Hot Wheels display screen

As far as favorites, the kitchen appliances came in at a close second to the toys. Like smart phones, appliances with large color displays have finally hit the useful stage. Helpful, attractive touch screens replace the myriad of confusing knobs and buttons. My favorite, the Kenmore Elite washing machine.  It was quite responsive, attractive and easy to use.  Well done.

“Connected” was the buzz word of the show.  Ovens that text you when dinner is done.  Security systems that you can set from your phone. Cars that tell you everything you need to know about your vehicle, surroundings, traffic and other cars.  Speaking of cars.  Displays and touch screens in the car have hit the big time. Instrument clusters, infotainment, rear seat entertainment, passenger multifunction displays.  Very soon, physical components and moving parts will be a thing of the past – and not just in luxury cars.  From Jaguar XJ to the Ford Fiesta, everyone is getting a piece of glass.

All in all, it was a fruitful way to spend 2 days.  And unlike recent years, CES 2011 was a nice, upbeat way to start the year.”

From January 7^th:

Time to swing by the Kenmore booth and check out some of our handy work.

CES 2011 Kenmore washers

Kenmore Washer touchscreen display, CES 2011

Beauty in action. Check out the new Kenmore line of washers and dryers. Coming soon! I wonder how that lime green will look in my house…

Engadget  had a great write up about Kenmore’s connected line of products.

“all of which will be able to be controlled via a “smartphone or smart tablet” (Apple and Android devices were specifically mentioned as getting a free app), or via a large touchscreen on the device itself … What’s more, the appliances all boast Kenmore Connect, which allows for remote diagnostics that can be used to prepare technicians for in-home repairs, and they pack an array of energy management features that will let you conserve energy and keep watch on how much you’re using”

Tomorrow: my final thoughts on the show. Overall impressions. Interesting trends. How Altia fits. Ciao for now.

CES 2011 Show floor

From January 7^th:

It’s official: they’ll put a touchscreen on anything.  Thursday was all meetings so I didn’t get much time to walk the floor.  But I did come across this little gem of a machine with a color display that paints fingernails.  It even snaps photos and will transfer them to your nails.  Oh my.

CES 2011: nail painting contraption

I ran by the Ford booths — both inside and outside in the courtyard.  Fiesta was front and center in both cases.  The “connected car” theme and infotainment were clearly the focal point the car.  I think we are on the right track.  (To read how Altia partner Visteon used Altia’s tools in the Ford Fiesta, click here)

2011 Ford Fiesta at CES 2011

2011 Ford Fiesta at CES 2011 - Center console

The entire venue was packed. Taxi lines around the block.  I think CES is back with a vengeance. Visitors from China seem to dominate the crowd.  Today I have more meetings but should get a few hours to walk the floor and take some more snapshots of interesting display GUIs… or at the very least, an Elvis impersonator.

From January 6th:

“We’re off to CES in Vegas for a couple days. Paul de Curnou (one of our salesmen) and myself will join the throngs. Parting words from my beautiful wife, ‘Don’t be fooled, what happens in Vegas eventually gets back to me.’

Las Vegas Sky. CES 2011.

First impression:  45 minute wait at the Las Vegas airport taxi stand.  It felt like I was waiting for a Disney ride the way the queue ran through a maze with no visible end in sight.  But the line was moving and the arrivees were in good spirits. People are pouring in from around the world.  There’s a nice mix of American, Asian and European visitors. The weather is perfect for such an event. 50 degrees. The sky is blue and the mountains are gorgeous. There should be no excuse to get around and see all the action.  Next stop: registration at the convention center.”

Part 2 coming soon.

An article in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal featured some cool technology from a few of the major producers of residential washers and dryers. Newer generations of laundry appliances utilize high-end LCD  touchscreen interfaces to control their myriad of features, cycles, and options. We have several similar projects we’re working on right now.

Source: Wall Street Journal

The article showcases products from Whirlpool, Bosch, Sears, LG, Kenmore, and GE. And at upwards of $4,000 a pair, some of the appliances provide some amazing technology. A few cool features mentioned:

-Our favorite: the latest generation of appliances feature LCD touch screen displays that make controlling the appliance easy. Closer to a smartphone than washers of old. Click here to see some examples of Altia technology embedded in washers and dryers. (Click on Demos)

-One product includes a feature “that allows consumers to do small loads of laundry overnight and have them ready by morning.”

-GE’s Steam Washer can remove so much moisture they are “ready to wear without putting in the dryer.” Genius.

We’ve got an exciting webinar on the calendar! Our CEO, Mike Juran, will be revealing the lessons he has learned for getting high-impact HMIs into production embedded devices…profitably. The webinar will take place on Tuesday, November 16th from 12:00 -12:30 PM Mountain Standard Time. Click here to register.

For the last twenty years, Mike has helped HMI innovators develop embedded HMIs for their products. Whether your company is new to embedded touch screen development or you’re on your second, third or fourth generation embedded display, this presentation will surely be worthwhile.

Space is limited, so make sure to register soon!

Altia welcomes Brian Hancock, our Director of Sales for New England! Read our press release for more information.

Brian will serve the medical device industry, consumer electronics, building automation and security markets in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. If you would like to get in touch with Brian, please e-mail him at brianh@altia.com.

In a recent EE Times newsletter, the editors re-ran a series of design articles by Niall Murphy, software engineer and author of Front Panel: Designing Software for Embedded User Interfaces.  The one article from this series that really caught my eye was “Interfacing the User.”  Murphy begins with a bold statement: 

“Good software engineers don’t always make good interface designers. Sometimes they trust the user too much.” 

As a software engineer who formerly did this kind of work at Ford, Visteon and Motorola, I suppose I should be offended by this remark.  My experience at Altia, however, has taught me that Mr. Murphy is correct.  Software engineers cannot do interface design on their own.  It takes a (small) village – and the right tool – to create a great interface.

No matter how talented your software engineering team may be, they only provide a fraction of the expertise required to create winning UIs, which (as companies like Apple have demonstrated) result in market-leading products.  Software engineers need to collaborate with their systems engineering counterparts as well as experts in Human Factors and Industrial Design to complete the circle of knowledge and know-how.  The resulting user interface then needs to be tested by real people who can confirm ease of use and provide feedback about the design.

The best method to achieve this collaboration is via a model-based development approach.  All of the tools from the various teams involved in interface design can be integrated into a single environment to create a working model that can be tested and refined early in development.  The final executable specifications for that model can be baselined as a requirement model and then act as the initial software design, which can then be refined for embedded target performance and limitations.  From that point, deployable graphics code can be generated from that refined model with a code generator like DeepScreen.

Peter Abowd and Jim Mikola have a great article published in the August 2010 issue of Embedded Computing Design. In “Contrasting sprites and GPUs and the HMI modeling approach,” Peter and Jim share their perspective on these budget-friendly hardware solutions. They also explain the best case scenario for each product.

While this article focuses on automotive applications, the discussion is timely. Embedded displays are pervasive. Companies need to delivering a first rate HMI on their next generation product, but they’ve got to keep BOM costs in line. Altia supports the full range of graphics hardware options — from these low cost chips all the way to the high power processors with accelerated graphics capability. We’re committed to helping our customers get winning graphics from their artist’s imagination to the lowest cost hardware in the shortest amount of time.

Here is an article that validates what consumers expect out of their electronic gadgets.  Keyboards, hard buttons, scroll wheels, a thing of the past.  Touch screens are in vogue but for how long?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/technology/01touch.html?_r=2