HMI
Altran Praxis has a strong background in supporting designers, ergonomists and developers from conception through to test and integration of Human Machine Interfaces (HMI). This experience has allowed Praxis to develop technology and expertise to support productivity and
innovation for HMI in a variety of contexts.
Our technology and know-how address a number of key issues for HMI in embedded systems. Notably those that run in constrained contexts such as high integrity or high functional diversity or have a demand for evolutionary capabilities.
Underlying concepts
Praxis has acquired a unique know-how in HMI architecture and delivery. This know- how is based on a number of key concepts:
- Strong separation between HMI and functional elements in a software application.
- Technology neutral descriptions of interaction models and interface design (based on XML).
- HMI development independent of code development.
- Device abstraction to support all interaction modes (visual, audio, gesture, haptic) for presentation and input.
Issues addressed
The application of these concepts allows Praxis to define frameworks and programming paradigms in order to address the most demanding issues for modern HMI product design:
- Evolution: supporting functional extensions during the life of a product.
- Multi-modal interfaces: allowing designers to create new interaction paradigms without a high cost in application development.
- Skinning: supports application independent branding, cultural localisation and demographic adaptation.
- Service continuity: allowing applications and services to move across devices.
- Adaptive HMIs: supporting clean and ergonomic interfacing of concurrent applications with differing interaction priorities for the end-user.
- Demographics: supporting the appropriate approaches to take into account target end-users; from professional users such as Air Traffic Controllers through to populations with special needs, such as the aged.
- System scale: providing the right technical approach for the scale and supporting resources of the target system; embedded systems for high-integrity single function usage or large scale multi-function systems for the consumer market.
Current HMI research
Looking to the future, Praxis continues to be at the forefront of HMI innovation and its practical applications. In particular, we are working on technology to address emerging issues in interfacing devices and systems:
- User constrained environments: for instance a surgeon operating on a patient with a need to interact with a therapy delivery system.
- Collaborative working: for systems that support interaction with multiple end-users such as crisis management displays and interfaces.
- Persons with restricted mobility: allowing appropriate and reliable interactions for the aged or handicapped.
Attacking these challenges has led Praxis to work on the development and application of innovations such as the following:
- Advanced speech recognition to allow operation in noisy environments without the use of special training and without requiring a specific speech recognition start trigger.
- Gestural interface technology to support communication to a system without contact through a keyboard or touch screen.
- Automated generation of HMI code, based on an abstract specification of the required user interactions and independent of any potential modes or device implementation.
Our deliverables
The solutions proposed by Praxis cover the provision of the following:
- Technical elements such as frameworks, device models and code generators.
- Tooling for human-machine interface assembly, simulation and automated test.
- Consultancy, including architecture and prototyping.
- Turnkey HMI project delivery.
Case reference
Integrating mobile devices into in-car driver interfaces
Challenge
One of the world’s largest Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) had to integrate applications, media and services carried by consumer devices into an in-car Human Machine Interface in a manner that was safe and above all dynamic. This required that the in-car system create an HMI for a service running on a consumer device connected to it, through Bluetooth, USB or similar.
Based on an initial proof of concept demonstrator, Praxis agreed to provide a fully automotive compliant system supporting the HMI integration of a number of devices and services. This system was also required to ‘pair’ with such devices and services dynamically and without technical intervention.
Outcome
A system was delivered which demonstrated the requested capability, it supported mobile and smartphone devices hosting services such as email, weather and phone based navigation. The system also showed continuity of service by allowing an end-user to switch between in-car hosted human-machine interface and device hosted HMI without stopping the associated application or service. The net result was an agreement with the OEM to go to series production of this system.