Graphics engine cuts network bandwidth demands

Novel graphics technology allows images to be transmitted over limited-bandwidth networks.

The dream of all doctors and nurses is to have patient data available on mobile hardware.

This would not only make life a lot easier by being able to retrieve data at any time, but also with the ability to view data on several patients stored in different systems at the same time.

However, over a "slow" network (such as Bluetooth) using standard products this is practically impossible because remotely operated graphics creation, such as scalable vector technology, consumes a tremendous amount of processor power and requires broadband networks.

Tilcon technology offers a smart solution: graphics technology that even makes drawing via a TCP/IP network of limited performance possible, such as WLAN 802.11b, Bluetooth or IP via MOST.

Hundreds of terminals can be connected via open IP channels, and objects can be drawn in parallel.

Even a message return to server application is possible.

Tilcon has developed a demonstration system in which a brain scan is used as the sample application.

In the demo installation the Tilcon software runs on an X-Board from Kontron, under Windows CE, and uses the binary Tilcon EVE (embedded vector engine) graphics engine to produce drawings locally.

The application can be operated locally, and at the same time the application data are sent to an ETXexpress host system (Windows XP).

A second EVE draws the image under Windows XP, also locally, and control is exercised by means of the control data of the PDA.

The resulting image is projected onto a large screen.

In addition to the scalability of the software, the special feature of this is the simultaneous and identical display of the image content.

When the user displays certain parts of the brain on the X-Board, enlarged by a magnifying glass, or highlight areas of the scan in a different colour, a message is conveyed in real time to the server, and the ETXexpress shows this X-Board modification immediately on its normal screen or on the projected image.

At the same time the image of the brain with the magnifying glass is drawn locally on the Windows XP slave, with a local EVE.

The transmission of control data (start, stop, end etc) to the slave is carried out by means of the Windows CE server application via the LAN.

Therefore the load on the network is minimal, and it is irrelevant whether one or more slaves receive these control signals at the same time.

Binary packages represent the next generation in GUI solutions, because they require minimal development expenditure.

The binary EVE graphics engine which is part of the Tilcon Interface Development Suite (IDS) offers all the basic graphics, plus information about highly developed graphics objects (switches, cursors, slider controls, trend charts, spectrograms etc) and their behaviour.

Thus, all the OEM needs to do is to specify the properties of the GUI objects (eg the number of points on a trend chart, colour, update frequency, signals etc) with the development environment in a Windows file (TWD file), sometimes also named as a skin file.

Communication between the embedded application and the EVE is carried out via the API supplied.

The EVE draws the HMI defined in the windows file and controls the objects with the data that are sent via the API.

The Tilcon Interface Development Suite (IDS) enables the design and animation of HMIs without any code being produced or any technical knowledge of embedded programming being necessary.

As no graphics library is linked to the embedded application, the embedded developer no longer has to worry about graphics.

Instead, the objects are defined by the graphics designer, who specifies their names and sets their parameters - without any embedded expertise.

The screen layout or user interface can easily be designed by selecting objects from a large library or by assigning customer-specific characteristics.

Graphics images can be allocated to objects at a mouse click, and their parameters can be configured with checkboxes.

Each object is given a symbolic name, to which the binary EVE relates.

It knows immediately how the object is to be drawn, by combining the drawing instructions saved in the TWD file with the dynamic parameters of the embedded application.

It draws all objects faultlessly on real-time operating systems (Linux, QNX, VxWorks, Windows CE, Windows XP Embedded), even using IP stacks (WindNET), databases (Birdstep RDM, Encirq 3e) or UML tools.

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