Design Article
HMI Tools Save Time and Cost in Auto Applications
By Waqar Saleem, Fujitsu Semiconductor America, Inc.
1/29/2013 9:56 PM EST
Active scene rendering
Active scene is always rendered using a WYSIWYG approach. As a result, it is possible to visually inspect the imported graphics assets early in the development. Moreover, object properties can be dynamically changed in the active scene to get immediate results and timely evaluation.
Figure 3: CGI Studio Process Flow Graphic
Candera Engine
This module runs the output of the Scene Composer. The Candera Engine can run either on the host or on the actual target. It can support development of both 2D and 3D graphics.
The Candera 2D engine supports dynamic scene graph and 2D animations, including smooth rotation, scaling, and translation of bitmaps. In order to enable seamless integration, the 2D engine supports interaction with the 3D engine in several ways. For example, it supports render to texture; it can post-process 3D images and combine scenes with 3D. It also supports hardware layers, multiple displays, alpha blending, 2D widgets, and text rendering.
The Candera 3D engine is based on OpenGL-ES 2.0 and is fully compliant with the standard specification. It has been designed to be OS, application, and hardware agnostic. Its key functions are screen and scene management, 3D object handling and processing, animation framework, and asset management in the embedded system’s memory. It also optimizes render order and state management.
Player
One of the key modules is the Player, which runs the "generate" application on the host as well as on the target. As a result, it is possible to verify the application on the host even before it is deployed on the target. This also helps verify the widget design.
Other Modules
CGI Studio has some other modules with distinct advantages. Courier is an interaction framework that handles data binding and messaging with the host system, allowing smooth integration of the tool. It can interface with Matlab, VisualState from IAR, and other proprietary state machine tools. The Analyzer helps to assess application performance, detect bottlenecks and optimize the final design. Translator helps in context-based translation for different languages. Other modules, such as the Photoshop importer, HTML5 module, and functional safety module, serve their unique purposes.
Summary of Key Benefits
Conclusion
In short, the CGI Studio HMI tool chain enables system developers to seamlessly implement a graphics application from concept to actual embedded implementation. This makes possible key benefits such as cost effectiveness, a seamless process, and the convenience of having a single tool for both 2D and 3D development on a host platform.
About the author
Waqar Saleem is a senior applications engineer with Fujitsu Semiconductor America, based in Detroit. He has more than a dozen years of design and applications experience with Fujitsu Semiconductor, and holds engineering degrees from San Jose State Univ. and the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan.
Active scene is always rendered using a WYSIWYG approach. As a result, it is possible to visually inspect the imported graphics assets early in the development. Moreover, object properties can be dynamically changed in the active scene to get immediate results and timely evaluation.
Figure 3: CGI Studio Process Flow Graphic
Candera Engine
This module runs the output of the Scene Composer. The Candera Engine can run either on the host or on the actual target. It can support development of both 2D and 3D graphics.
The Candera 2D engine supports dynamic scene graph and 2D animations, including smooth rotation, scaling, and translation of bitmaps. In order to enable seamless integration, the 2D engine supports interaction with the 3D engine in several ways. For example, it supports render to texture; it can post-process 3D images and combine scenes with 3D. It also supports hardware layers, multiple displays, alpha blending, 2D widgets, and text rendering.
The Candera 3D engine is based on OpenGL-ES 2.0 and is fully compliant with the standard specification. It has been designed to be OS, application, and hardware agnostic. Its key functions are screen and scene management, 3D object handling and processing, animation framework, and asset management in the embedded system’s memory. It also optimizes render order and state management.
Player
One of the key modules is the Player, which runs the "generate" application on the host as well as on the target. As a result, it is possible to verify the application on the host even before it is deployed on the target. This also helps verify the widget design.
Other Modules
CGI Studio has some other modules with distinct advantages. Courier is an interaction framework that handles data binding and messaging with the host system, allowing smooth integration of the tool. It can interface with Matlab, VisualState from IAR, and other proprietary state machine tools. The Analyzer helps to assess application performance, detect bottlenecks and optimize the final design. Translator helps in context-based translation for different languages. Other modules, such as the Photoshop importer, HTML5 module, and functional safety module, serve their unique purposes.
Summary of Key Benefits
- CGI Studio allows opportunities for early evaluation of graphics assets in the Scene Composer window using a WYSIWYG approach. Application simulation in CGI Player on the development system also gives a solid look and feel to the visual quality.
- This widely applicable solution has a scalable tool chain for both 2D and 3D UI, as well as for hybrid 2D and 3D scenes. It can be used for both automotive clusters and infotainment systems.
- CGI Studio has many functions for traceability of graphics assets, including asset-generation reports, asset verification, and version control. The tool can connect graphics assets with requirement management.
- The Scene Composer tool keeps the graphics assets and code separate, allowing re-skinning of graphics even in later project stages, and eliminating the need to rebuild the project if the graphics need to be modified.
- The same set of tools can be shared between the studio graphics designer, technical artist, and software engineer.
- Widget development can be done using industry-standard programming languages such as C, C++, or C#.
- The Analyzer tool allows system benchmarking and performance analysis before the application is deployed on the target. It provides valuable feedback regarding the hardware feasibility of the system.
- On the target, CGI Studio also supports multi-threading and incremental updating and partitioning of asset libraries.
- The tool's state-of-the-art feature set supports HMTL4, OpenGL 3.0, interoperability with GenIVI, and functional safety (ISO26262).
Conclusion
In short, the CGI Studio HMI tool chain enables system developers to seamlessly implement a graphics application from concept to actual embedded implementation. This makes possible key benefits such as cost effectiveness, a seamless process, and the convenience of having a single tool for both 2D and 3D development on a host platform.
About the author
Waqar Saleem is a senior applications engineer with Fujitsu Semiconductor America, based in Detroit. He has more than a dozen years of design and applications experience with Fujitsu Semiconductor, and holds engineering degrees from San Jose State Univ. and the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan.
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