Intelligent User Interface Streamlines Colour Display Migration

As users of products ranging from home automation to medical instruments demand a modern colour user interface, more and more manufacturers are seeking to upgrade their offerings. However, moving to a colour display often involves integration challenges that can prove time-consuming costly, difficult, sometimes even prohibitively so without significant compromises, as older processing platforms are too restricted to create smooth, high-resolution graphics and high quality sound.

The Anders UMR-X10 is the first low-cost intelligent user interface created expressly for the hassle and compromise-free integration of modern, attractive, intuitive GUIs into speciality products. Measuring from just 8.7 x 7.6 x 1.5 cm, it includes a 3.5” transflective screen (suitable for indoor or outdoor use), running at a full VGA resolution with built-in touchscreen functionality, pre-mounted onto and integrated with a fully-functional, custom-designed Windows CE 5 embedded computer.

Benefiting from innovations developed for the Smartphone industry, such as its low power PXA270 ARM-based processor, the UMR-X10 offers modern computing performance coupled with a full range of interfaces supported by off-the-shelf drivers (from legacy standards to the latest protocols including USB, Ethernet and wireless LAN). With its built in stereo power amplifier, The UMR-X10 is capable of delivering high quality video and sound, enabling products to train their own users.

The Anders UMR-X10 is ready to meet the challenges of almost any application, without product designers having to waste time writing low-level software. Out of the box, the UMR-X10’s operating system and BSP enables simple GUI creation using standard Microsoft tools, with their many pre-configured user interface components and easy integration with existing applications.

As an embedded product, with an extended lifetime, strict change control, and a clear upgrade path to faster processors, more storage and additional communications interfaces - the UMR-X10 is a platform that can be relied upon.

We created the UMR series to allow product manufacturers to concentrate on their core competencies, while still modernising their user interface, said Rob Anders, CEO of Anders Electronics. Today's product designers recognise that the user interface is a key selling point, and the UMR-X10 offers not only an excellent end result, but also – and more importantly – an unprecedented smooth migration path, he continued.