Agile techniques show ability of Intel IVI platform to adapt to automotive market requirements
The Qt development framework, developed together by The Qt Company and the open source Qt Project, has enabled, in just nine weeks, the creation of a complete human-machine interface (HMI) for a smart in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system. Built for Intel, the system was designed to demonstrate the ease with which highly graphical and interactive interfaces can be incorporated into the next generation of motor vehicles.
To implement a demonstrator that shows how IVI systems can offer the same user experience in vehicles as on their personal computing and communications devices, Intel turned to Boston, Massachusetts-based Integrated Computer Solutions (ICS), the largest Qt consulting firm in North America. ICS provides companies worldwide with powerful visual user experience (UX) design and agile software product development services, using the advanced Qt framework because of its flexibility and ability to move quickly from concept to production with a minimum of re-engineering.
To support the rapid development of the IVI system over the tight nine-week schedule, ICS adopted an agile-development methodology and performed a series of five ‘sprints’ to build successively more complete prototypes. Daily ‘stand up’ meetings were held that included an Intel representative to guide progress of the project.
ICS took advantage of the Qt architecture in which business logic is separated from presentation, allowing the two to be tuned independently. Qt deploys a number of technologies to underpin the creation of fluid, highly interactive user interfaces, including the declarative QML environment. Leveraged by the architecture developed by ICS for the IVI demonstrator, QML’s declarative approach makes it possible to customise the interface for a given make and model of car using simple selectors. These selectors can be provided by a configuration file uploaded during manufacturing or by code, which queries vehicle-specific data, such as the vehicle identification number (VIN).
In the demonstrator developed by ICS, the HMI code leverages a rich set of functions provided by Intel’s core software modules that in turn interface with the powerful IVI hardware. The hardware is based on a combination of quad-core processor and graphics processing unit supported by solid-state non-volatile storage, networking controllers and AM/FM radio, audio and voice-processing subsystems.
The Intel platform allows for high-performance with low development complexity because users do not need to take account of complex threading considerations that would otherwise be needed. Following its rapid and successful development, Intel is now using the ICS HMI as part of its sales process for the IVI solution. Third parties are expected to start developing their own systems based on this solution soon.
