GUI for every device

Product

July 26, 2010

Graphical user interfaces have become expected on most devices these days, and we've all had the displeasure of trying to interpret complicated commands using a few buttons and a measly three LEDs.

Graphical user interfaces have become expected on most devices these days, and we’ve all had the displeasure of trying to interpret complicated commands using a few buttons and a measly three LEDs. A GUI proves a rich experience, as long as the CPU/chipset can drive an LCD (or equivalent) display. Blue Water Embedded’s Prism is a suite of GUI development tools optimized for low-cost, resource-constrained embedded devices. The suite consists of the Prism Runtime Framework as a GUI toolkit; Prism Micro for monochrome and 8-bit color depth targets; and Prism Insight, which is the GUI design and resource editing tool.

The Framework component automates design and deployment with a widget set, drawing engine, event manager, and screen manager. Collectively, the tools create rich animations, screen transitions, anti-aliasing (a must on low-res screens), as well as blending and canvas transformations. Prism Micro is a version of the Runtime Framework that’s designed specifically for cost-constrained and low-color-depth targets. Prism Insight is a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG with TrueType fonts and widgets to create buttons and other screen elements. Output files can be C/C++, XML, or binary.