The design of infotainment interfaces is increasingly important and necessary for the development of technology in the automotive industry, since it allows the user to have an interaction with the vehicle so that the functions of the vehicle can be effectively controlled and that there is a feedback to the driver, thus allowing him to know if the action taken was correct and how to follow the operation. This work introduces the development of a prototype user interface for automotive systems that allows easy manipulation of its elements as well as active and useful feedback to the user.
The rise of the automotive industry in Mexico has taken place for 25 years [
Within automotive research there are a number of challenges to improving
automobiles, including, performance, safety, comfort and interaction between the
user, passengers and information and entertainment systems or also known as
Infotainment Systems [
Another important aspect to consider in infotainment system design is
usability, according to Jakob Nielsen, usability [
However, one of the most commonly used functions in these systems is the playback and management of digital media as a form of entertainment (e.g. Music). Derived from this, the project in question is focused on one of the most basic but most used functions of this type of systems which is the handling of audio through an interface that offers enough visual feedback, without being struck for the driver and companions.
In-car audio systems have evolved rapidly and are becoming more user-friendly. As we already know, graphical interfaces are not new to the automotive industry, being an important part of user interaction today. Such is the case of the Volkswagen Jetta, its 2018 model had a 5" screen, while the 2020 model has an 8" screen and also had the removal of the cluster of instruments to incorporate a central screen, thus, aiming for this research to explore and develop more friendly report systems to provide greater comfort and safety in the use of them.
Latest car releases have included very good quality audio players, creating a very comfortable and safe environment for the driver. Some of these features are the buttons included in the steering wheel to have better control of the audio system without having to remove your hands from the steering wheel thus avoiding possible accidents related to lack of attention on the part of the driver.
Because the automotive industry is the largest developer of infotainment
systems, there are limited open source options that can be used by the community for
research. However, an alliance of several companies is under development, whose
purpose is to be able to develop these systems in open source, Linux Automotive [
The EB GUIDE software by Elektrobit [
On the home screen, a menu was implemented showing different task options
that the driver can perform. The options to be displayed were thought of to satisfy the
main needs that usually occur when the user is driving and because of this the driver
cannot pay much attention to his cell phone thus facilitating the option to solve the
task without getting distracted from the steering wheel [
The designed menu contains 6 icons with different tasks that the user can select while driving. All these options appear at the same time on the main screen thinking of avoiding any kind of distraction that may occur. In the menu you will find the messaging icons, call history, GPS, system settings, system help and music as shown in Fig. 2. We selected these functions and icons because they are the most common in current infotainment systems, it is not the purpose of this article to delve into this aspect.
Fig 2. Main menu designed on the EB GUIDE platform. 2.1 Program code
This program contains pre-set functionalities that are subsequently inherited, changed and/or manipulated to achieve the desired functionality. This type of objectoriented approach significantly reduced the number of lines of code required for programming. In EB GUIDE objects are inserted into templates.
The general properties that display all templates are described in Table 1. touchPressed touchShortRel eased width x y
Dictates what happens while you have a tactile stimulus on the object. It is controlled by lines of code, from which you can control other properties of the object.
Dictates what happens when a touch stimulus is stopped on the object. It is controlled by lines of code, from which you can control other properties of the object.
Width of the object.
The X position where the object is located.
The Y position where the object is located.
Each template contains particular properties that describe corresponding actions. Template TL_BOTON_IMAGEN. This template was used in most interface development because it was developed to function as a button where, when selected, you could perform a default action. On the home screen, 6 templates of this type were placed with different images (Fig. 3), where each image is the representative icon of the window that will open if you select the button.
As described in Table 1, the properties of this template can be modified as many times as necessary in each of the copies generated, its general properties are seen in Fig. 4.
To visually know that a button was selected, a resolution change of the selected button was programmed to allow a visual resizing. The programming was edited in the touchPressed property and later in the TouchShortReleased. The scaling function property is used specifically to scale the size of the image and visually make the "click" that the user orders, thus achieving the resizing only while selecting the button.
This is how the TL_BOTON_IMAGEN template was created. In the development of the interface was indispensable due to it was used in most of the development as it was to place the 6 icons of the main screen, the return button appears in each window, the option to move up or down the playlists, a button to play a song randomly and in the window where it simulates the playback of a song the template appears on the play icon, pause, advance song and turn the volume up or down. In all these cases, the template was used, changing only the image type and size of it.
Template TL_ListaM. The "TL_ListaM" template was used in two different interface windows. The performed function was to list the different types of data. The first window where it was implemented was to display playlist options and the second to display the songs contained in that list (see Fig. 5).
This container adds the size, element, and location (x,y) properties to the global interface so that they can be manipulated on any copies that are generated from the template. In addition, an event was inserted which allows access to another window if selected any item in the list. The particular properties used in the development of this template are seen in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. EB GUIDE "Button Generator" properties.
This instance contains some general properties described in Table 1. The particular properties are described in Table 2:
For the ArribaAbajo event to be functional, the following code was created:
Template TL_PROGRESO. The development of this template was to be able to simulate the playback of a song, where it actually is an image that changes its horizontal size within a certain time, said template was only used in the playback window (see Fig. 7).
A container was created where two conditional1 properties named "ACTUALIZA_ANCHO" and "ANCHO_PAPA" were applied. These properties allow to modify the width of the container using conditions by simulating a run or playback of a song. At the same height of this container appears a label called "PERCENTAGE", this label contains an event called "AVANCE" and is the event that modifies its size compared to the characteristics of the "ANCHO_PAPA" property. To make the job functional it was necessary to insert the following code: 1 A conditional script is a property that applies only if it carries a condition, that condition is described by code. Template TL_VOLUMEN. It works in a way that when you select the volume up or down button within the playback window, an image appears pointing in the percentage of the volume at which the playing song is being listened to. This template was developed much like the TL_PROGRESO template, its internal architecture (hierarchy) is the same, the difference between these both is the bar, in this template it resizes vertically and is initially an invisible image that becomes visible only when the up or down button is selected. The code used was similar to the above described, the difference being the variables that are called because they are different.
This article briefly describes the process that was carried out for the development of an interface for an Infotainment System using the EB GUIDE software of the company Elektrobit. In the main window were used six templates called TL_BOTON_IMAGEN (Fig. 9 part 1), as buttons for the different options in the menu. The background images and triggering events were modified, as described in Fig. 1.
Design and development sequences are displayed specifically for the music icon. When you select the music button, an event triggers the next window which is a playlist, for this to happen, the template TL_ListaM was used, besides adding two TL_BOTON_IMAGEN templates to be able to move up or down the list (Fig. 9 part 2). Choosing the playlist links directly to the list of songs where, like the previous case, the TL_ListaM template and two TL_BOTON_IMAGEN templates were used to be able to see the list completely.
By moving up or down the list (Fig. 9 part 3) and choosing the song, there is a template TL_PROGRESO on the play button and thanks to this template, on (Fig. 9 part 4) the simulation of the playback of said song can be seen. Besides this template, an additional one that shows the percentage of volume during music playback TL_VOLUMEN (Fig. 9 Part 5) and this also contains buttons to turn the volume up or down TL_BOTON_IMAGEN.
Icons with the image of an arrow or cottage appear in each window. It is actually a TL_BOTON_IMAGEN template that allows you to return to the previous window until you reach the main menu.
It is important to mention that this is a work in progress and at the moment, the progress of the prototype development is not available in any repository.
As can be seen in Fig.3, it was possible to obtain an interface that is ideally userfriendly and allows an interaction with the various info-entertainment systems of the vehicle which allows the possibility of being used as a basis to develop a complete interface and thus evaluate its usability so that, in the future, it can determine the advantages or disadvantages that may have and thus have the possibility to develop such graphical interfaces and be able to apply it to vehicles.
The use of cell phones while driving it is a leading cause of accidents in Mexico
[
Because of the obvious generational breech that exists today [
The prototype design is still in the development stage, since at the end of the interface it is intended to undergo an evaluation to determine if it meets the appropriate standards of a car and to know if it is suitable for use