International Appliance Manufacturing 2008 - (Page 40) User Interface Controls in a Single Chip An ARM7-based MCU with User Interface Controls brings appliance designers reliability, flexibility and cost savings when integrating monochrome or full-color graphic user interface controls. Ken Klask, Amulet Technologies & Jay Johnson, Atmel Corporation Graphic User Interfaces (GUI’s) are not just for personal computers anymore. They are now becoming commonplace in many other products, such as automobiles, cell phones, digital cameras, portable digital music players, and even major household appliances. Just as the automobile industry discovered in the early 1990’s, appliance manufactures are now discovering that electronics and industrial design are the keys to providing value to customers. Consumers have come to expect visually appealing and easy to use GUI’s on all new electronic devices. They feel at ease navigating through screens to reach different features of their new device. At the same time, product designers and marketers have discovered the secret to differentiating their products and luring consumers to their brand. The secret lies in the marriage of digital electronics and industrial design, and a well-designed GUI is often a central component in the implementation of this strategy. Consumer Behavior This consumer behavior is not unique to iPods® and cell phones. It is also having a serious impact on many other Embedded products. New technological advances are increasing the capabilities and complexities of our devices. In many cases, there just isn’t enough space to add more buttons and LED’s to make the added functionality accessible. Likewise, engineers are being pressured to reduce the cost and increase the reliability. For this reason, we are nearing the end of an era where the human interface for an embedded system holds a close resemblance to a 1970’s digital alarm clock with push buttons, knobs, sliders, switches, and LED’s. medium-sized microcontrollers that don’t have the resources to control a GUI and the device at the same time. Third, the look and feel of the product is developed by industrial designers, which are often out of touch with the software programmers. Challenges for Appliance Various applications, such as household appliances, have some unique characteristics that can be challenging for GUI integration. First, they are typically never turned off and are required to run reliably 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for years on end. Second, they typically employ small to The Right Fit The difficult part is finding a GUI solution that is right for your application. Embedded systems cover a diverse product range. For some embedded products, such as those in the automobile navigation and portable media 40 International Appliance Manufacturing 2008
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