NVIDIA's Auto UI

The Tegra team showed off its latest automotive prototypes of the future. The HMI (Human Machine Interaction) toolkit by NVIDIA called UI Composer is currently in development. The UI runs compatible on Android using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technology. NVIDIA’s standardized modular board design delivers many benefits.

UI Composer Studio is a groundbreaking HMI design tool used for instrument clusters and infotainment systems. Developed by NVIDIA, it's used by automakers and Tier 1 automotive suppliers to rapidly develop proof of concepts for evaluation, market research, usability testing, and ultimately, final production. The innovative tool chain incorporates true 3D rendering capabilities, high-resolution imagery, and animation, with the ability to move light sources and camera positions.

The technology supports sophisticated Material Definition Language (MDL), complex materials such as carbon fiber, brushed metals, stitched leather, and glass can be rendered photorealistically, and in real-time. The result is a creative canvas for designing the next generation of customizable digital instrument clusters and in-vehicle infotainment.

With a modular approach, NVIDIA's UI Composer can meet expectations of the auto manufacturers production cycle. The board can be swapped for the latest generation and modified accordingly. The prototype is still a futuristic concept. UIs and applications have been receptive so far from the developer community.

The OS market has Android continued to be the OS of choice across all devices. Gartner estimates that Android will reach 1.1 billion users in 2014, a 26 percent increase from 2013. "There is no doubt that there is a volume versus value equation, with Android users also purchasing lower-cost devices compared to Apple users. Android holds the largest number of installed-base devices, with 1.9 billion in use in 2014, compared with 682 million iOS/Mac OS installed-base devices," said Annette Zimmerman, principal analyst at Gartner.

Today, automotive companies are embracing digital technologies and mobile. Companies have the ability to adopt human-machine interface (HMI) design tools. Nvidia's UI composer enables 3D, recreates complex materials and is based in real-time. The Android smartphone has been well received in automotive UI.

UI Composer Studio is available as a free trial for NVIDIA automotive customers.