Articles and whitepapers

The Evolution of the Colour Touchscreen - A Whitepaper (26/11/2003)

By Eric Johnson

The Home Theater Master MX-3000 offers some superficial similarities to previous touchscreen offerings, but its new design offers custom installers long-needed relief in a number of key areas.

The twin goals of the design team were to improve the elegance and usability of touchscreens through the physical design, while streamlining the programming process to reduce the time required to install a touchscreen.

Home Theater Master MX-3000 Colour Touchscreen

Touchscreens Versus TV Menus and Guides

When the original satellite, cable or PVR remote control is used to select a new program from a menu or guide displayed on the screen of a television, your hand operates the navigational cursor controls of the remote while the user looks at the TV screen. When a touchscreen is used however, the end user is forced to constantly look at the touchscreen to locate the correct navigational button. Then the user must look back to the TV screen to verify the selection and so forth, creating a kind of constant 'nodding' of the end user.

Home Theater Master engineers concentrated on finding a physical solution to this issue. Many manufacturers have placed hard button cursor buttons on their touchscreens, but all have positioned the buttons at the bottom of the remote, so that one hand must cradle the remote while the other finds the correct button. By re-orientating the touchscreen to a horizontal aspect ratio and fixing the buttons to locations where the hand naturally grips the remote, the navigational nodding problem was resolved in a surprising and satisfying arrangement of find-by-feel buttons.

Find-by-feel operation is made possible by positioning the key Volume, Mute, Info and Channel buttons on the left side of the remote control, while the navigational cursor controls, Menu and Exit buttons are placed on the right. The grip of the MX-3000 places thumbs optimally for the most frequently used commands

Ergonomic Principles

Touchscreens for automating and controlling home theatres have been an important tool in the arsenal of custom installers for years. The usefulness of the touchscreen lies in the installer's power to control the user interface and customise it to the client's needs. To end users, the success of touchscreens in the high-end home theatre market has been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a touchscreen offers understandable controls, powerful automation and a delightful aesthetic alternative to the clutter of conventional remote controls on the coffee table. On the other hand, touchscreen users have traditionally suffered from ergonomic challenges that conventional remote controls do not.

By orientating the screen to a horizontal aspect ratio, the MX- 3000 offers the largest possible usable screen area to labels. On a vertically-oriented screen, the largest dimension usable for buttons is height. Since labels are read from left to right or horizontally, much of the advantage of touchscreen custom labelling is lost in vertical designs.

The MX-3000's ultra-thin profile is contoured to fit the hands of the end user

By assigning the important home theatre operational buttons to the natural resting place of the end users thumbs, the MX-3000 achieves a new standard in useful ergonomics. For those who surf or love to make fine adjustments to the home theatre, the MX-3000 has a number of refinements to keep it comfortable in their hands. The most important is the use of advanced technology and material to make the touchscreen as light in weight as possible. Through the use of lithium ion battery technology and other innovations, the weight of the touchscreen has been reduced to less than 11 ounces.

The thinness of the MX-3000 is due to the miniaturization of all components, including the Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. This battery gives long life with heavy use, and unlike other rechargeable batteries, has no 'memory', so the remote can be stored on the charger without harm to battery capacity

The integral motion sensor detects any movement of the touchscreen and automatically backlights the screen. The user does not have to press any button to display the screen. Any movement of the MX-3000 renews the backlighting. Without movement, the touchscreen stays lit for 1 to 99 seconds (programmed by the installer). The backlighting is extremely effective, even under direct sunlight. Using the latest CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) technology, the screen is vividly illuminated in a dark room, and is readable outdoors.

Programming Ease

Previous touchscreens have cluttered the screen with interface icons for clocks, timers and navigation. The MX-3000 offers a completely open screen to programming. All of the necessary navigational controls are moved to hard buttons below the touchscreen, all of the timers, clocks and date displays are made optional, resizable and completely placed at the discretion of the programmer for the needs of the user.

The MX-3000 is powered by a 206MHz RISC microprocessor that allows quick, fluid page transitions and animated macros that entertain the client as the programmed automation goes to work configuring their system for them. The 3.8" screen offers a 240x320 pixel window to any graphic the installer cares to provide, including BMPs, JPEGs, GIFs and animated GIFs on any button.

Equipped with a speaker and any PC recording, the installer can add talking help buttons (recorded on any PC with a microphone) or music to macros, via any WAV file.

IR and RF Communication

Traditional touchscreens generate their automation via macros of IR commands. During a long macro, the user must hold the remote steady and pointed at the equipment to ensure that all commands are received by the components. The MX-3000 includes new RF technology that provides seamless communication between the remote and the components via RF. As a result, the end user no longer needs to point the remote or worry at all during a long macro. Once the button is pressed, the MX-3000 transmits the macro to the MRF-200 RF base station, which repeats the commands, regardless of whether the remote is even in the customer's hands.

The MRF-200 Base Station receives RF signals from the MX- 3000 and transmits commands to all components in the space (cabinet or room) either through the MRF-200 Base Station's Front IR Blaster or the six plug-in flashers. The MX-3000 and MRF-200 consistently achieve a range of 75 to 100 feet without any interference, even in hostile RF environments with multiple satellite receivers, computers or PVRs (all these components generate significant interference to RF remote control).

The MX-3000 can issue both line of sight IR and omnidirectional RF, allowing plasma television sets to be controlled directly via IR, while out of sight A/V components are controlled via RF without the need for any IR repeater installation. Whether equipment is behind closed doors, inside cabinets, in other rooms of the house or even outdoors, the MX-3000 will send the necessary commands without pointing the remote controller at any A/V components.

A single MRF-200 RF base station can route the IR commands of up to six identical components. In houses with identical TVs or satellite receivers spread around the house, additional MRF-200 RF Base Stations can be installed. Each MRF-200 is assigned one of 16 unique ID Numbers allowing up to 16 equipment locations in a single installation. Each MRF - 200 can be controlled from any MX-3000. A system can be comprised of any number of MX- 3000s and MRF-20's. If desired, each MRF- 200 Base Station can have a dedicated MX-3000 programmed only for the components in that room. For instance, a single MX-3000 may be used to control three different locations, or each location can have its own MX-3000.

The MX-3000 issues both line of sight Infrared (IR) and proprietary radio frequency (RF) signals. The MRF-200 RF base station relieves the RF and translates it back into IR commands for the A/V components. The IR commands are relayed by IR emitters and/or the integral front blaster

Software Designed for the Professional Installer

Touchscreens introduce many complications for the professional installer. Although you can label any button with any length label, you now have the added chore of selecting, arranging and aligning all of the graphical buttons of the user interface. In some installations, the artistic part of the programming can take days.

Rather than forcing installers to create their own graphics and buttons, Home Theater Master GUI designer, Dale Crawford (renowned for his EasyTheater template for touchscreens), produced hundreds of icons and new button designs, organised into templates and themes that can be instantly swapped into place by the installer.

The MX-3000 Editor allows you to create your own designs as well, and save them as templates or themes for reuse, without the labour of programming each button individually.

GOMS - Speeding Programmers via Precise Timing of the Interface

GOMS (Goals, Objects, Methods and Selection) analysis was used exhaustively during the design process for the new MX- 3000 Editor. Each action that an installer might take during programming was timed and streamlined for the minimum number of mouse clicks and movements.

The MX3000 Editor saves time by displaying as much information as possible in a series of linked windows. The simultaneous display of information enables installers to save time by reducing the number of mouse clicks and menu choices to the fewest possible

The MX-3000 is programmed by following the steps of the Program Menu in order. For novice installers, the program menu keeps them focused on the job, accomplishing the programming tasks in order, without confusion. Experienced installers simply click on shortcut buttons in the main program window.

Installers who are required to fix the problems of another installer, can simply upload the file from the remote, and examine it in Simulator View. Each button is flagged with a symbol identifying whether it is programmed with a Macro, a preprogrammed code, a learned code, an alias or a punch through. By browsing through the pages of the configuration, you quickly identify the change you need to make since every button is instantly identifiable without clicking or double clicking.

Automated Templates and Themes Speed Programming

The MX-3000 Editor offers installers completely automated touchscreen graphics programming via the use of Templates and Themes. First the installer selects the template for each of the system components. Next, the installer selects the Theme for this particular client.

Three Themes for a TV device

Using a spreadsheet style of action list, the installer can program macros with great flexibility. Each row in the spreadsheet represents a macro step, but the installer can now program several functions to occur at the same time. Thus a command can be issued, a sound played, a message displayed on the button and a variable can be set, all at once.

IR Code Editing

Extensive editing of learned and database codes is possible. Now, projectors that require a sustained burst of 1 to 2 seconds can be automated, since the software enables you to edit the time the code is sent during a macro.

Tools for Professional Installers

Macros can set up to 255 custom variables. By creating variables for each of your users, you can program macros that perform different steps for different users.

During programming, you can call on a number of powerful tools, including import of ccf configurations, and access to galleries of button art or pre-recorded sounds. An emulator of the remote control itself enables you to quickly check navigation and button art in use. You can also instantly set the parameters of any buttons' text and graphics. You can select fonts, styles, and colours for your text, and even align multiple lines of text on one button if you wish.

Eric Johnson, Universal Remote Control, Inc.

Telephone 01270 628 252
www.universalremoteseurope.com