Tobias Holstein

Current Challenges in Compositing Heterogeneous User Interfaces for Automotive Purposes

Composition (i.e. merging distinct parts to form a new whole) of user interfaces from different providers or devices is popular in many areas. Current trends in the automotive area show, that there is a high interest in compositing interfaces from mobile devices into automotive user interfaces. “Apple CarPlay” and “Android Auto” are concrete examples of such compositions. However composition is addressed with challenges, especially if the parts are originally designed for different purposes.

Contradiction of Separation through Virtualization and Inter Virtual Machine Communication in Automotive Scenarios

A trend in automotive infotainment software is to create a separation of components based on different domains (e.g. Navigation, Radio, etc.). This intends to limit susceptibility to errors, simplify maintainability and to organize development based on domains. Multi-OS environments create another layer of separation through hardware/software virtualization. Using a hypervisor for virtualization allows the development of mixed critical systems. However, we see a contradiction in current architectures, which on one side aim to separate everything into virtual machines (VMs), while on the other side allow inter-VM-connectivity. In the end all applications are composited into one homogeneous UI and the previous intent of separation is disregarded. In this paper we investigate current architectures for in-vehicle infotainment systems (IVIS), i.e. mixed critical systems for automotive purposes, and show that regulations and/or requirements break the previous intents of the architecture.

Low-cost mixed reality simulator for industrial vehicle environments

High-end industrial vehicle simulators are generally expensive and aim at providing a high level of realism. The access to such simulators is often a limited resource to researchers and developers who find themselves using a PC-based simulator instead. We challenge this approach by introducing a low-cost mixed reality simulator for industrial vehicles that allows to test new vehicle control concepts and design ideas in a rapid prototyping manner. Our simulator prototype consists of a head-mounted projection display, a CAVE-like room covered with a retro-reflective cloth and a rotatable chair with controls to steer an industrial vehicle. The created digital environment represents an obstacle course for an excavator and can be controlled by a joystick, a keyboard and can be explored by natural head movements.

360 Degree Mixed Reality Environment to Evaluate Interaction Design for Industrial Vehicles Including Head-Up and Head-Down Displays

Designing and testing new information and safety features for industrial vehicles do not need to involve the realization of high-fidelity and expensive simulators. We propose a low-cost mixed reality environment which allows for rapid development and rearrangement of a virtual and physical setup of a simulator for industrial vehicles.

Towards an Architecture for an UI-Compositor for Multi-OS Environments

Separation through hardware/software virtualization on operating system (OS) layer reduces complexity in automotive software. Automotive software is categorized into domains (e.g. comfort, safety related features, driver assistance) and each domain is handled by a separate OS, which contains domain-specific applications. A common user interface (UI) for all applications from all domains is created through an UI-Compositor, which composites and manages the different input/output modalities.