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danmiddle2
10-08-2008, 11:17 AM
As I indicated in the thread about Ubuntu Mobile; I have been working on turning my UX into a Car Computer. I have managed to procure 2 additional docking stations and 2 automotive power supplies for fitting both to my car and the other half's car.

The plan is to permanently fit one docking station into each car with everything "hard wired" into it. My car, a Saab 9-3, has a perfect section at the front of the centre console where the docking station fits perfectly in place of the ashtray. I haven't really given that much thought to positioning in the the A4 yet, but suffice to say that the intention is to take the UX with me and dock it to each car when in that car.

One of the things that I would like to achieve is to give the UX a very "OEM" feel when in each car. By that I mean, I want it to feel like a Saab device in my car and an Audi device in the A4 (with appropriate use of Logo's etc).

I also want it to be "finger friendly" with no stylus or anything. Initially I would like it to perform as a satellite navigation device and media player, but there is the possibility to use it as a Bluetooth handsfree kit down the line and add numerous other functions.

It obviously has other functions anyway that can be used when running the 'car friendly GUI', such as checking e-mail, surfing the web, playing games... but these are not part of the "driving" feature-set; this is just what the device is capable of already.

I have made good progress to date;

I have the Ubuntu Mobile GUI installed; It's much more mature now than the initial video I made and posted. I will add a new one soon. As a result of that I have a "finger-friendly" touchscreen interface.

I have found a good Satellite navigation system which doesn't compromise on features (I am used to TomTom) and got that working seamlessly with WINE. It has FULL European maps and incorporates Speed Camera POI's.

What I need next is a way of differentiating between different docking stations so that the system can automatically boot up in different 'profiles' depending on which car it is connected to. Does anyone know if there is a "software serial number" of each docking station that I can search for. If not I was thinking of using different GPS antenna's so that it can determine which car it's in depending on the device id of the connected antenna, but this is a little messy. If anyone has any ideas about how i would achieve this, I would appreciate it.

Basically I was wondering if anyone else is interested in this? I am going to write it up anyway, but I thought I would see if anyone from here wanted to get involved quite early on?

Many thanks

Dan
hazmat
10-08-2008, 11:52 AM
I am not clear on why you need to tell which car it is connected to. Why would the ux care if both setups are the same ?
danmiddle2
10-08-2008, 12:04 PM
I am not clear on why you need to tell which car it is connected to. Why would the ux care if both setups are the same ?

Purely for aesthetic reasons - I don't want a Saab Logo'ed system plastered all over the Audi. It's not a necessity, just a nice to have.

It would also work with the "home" docking station as well - automatically going into a full GNOME interface. That's the idea anyway.
hazmat
10-08-2008, 02:05 PM
When you say saab logo do you mean within the os ? Certainly with windows you could have separate users...maybe the same with linux ?
danmiddle2
10-08-2008, 02:38 PM
When you say saab logo do you mean within the os ? Certainly with windows you could have separate users...maybe the same with linux ?

Yes; I mean within the OS... and yes; you can achieve this by having multiple users within Linux... but I want it to be automatic/transparent...plug it in and switch it on, then if it's in the saab it will autologon with the 'Saab' user account and if it's in the Audi... the "Audi" user account.

Thereby creating the right look and feel without having to log on.
danmiddle2
10-08-2008, 02:41 PM
I should also add that part of the reason for this is that my machine takes approx 40 seconds to get to the logon screen. I don't want to be logging on whilst driving... and I don't want to wait 40 seconds at the beginning of each journey. So you see, there are slight practical advantages.

And yes - I could have a more generic 'look' and 'feel' and a single auto-logon account which would achieve the same thing, but that's not what I want.

I won't have any difficulty achieving what I want... I just wondered if anyone knew a way to differentiate between docking stations to make the solution more universal. But that ofcourse assumes that anyone else in the world is at all interested in this kind of thing.
danmiddle2
10-09-2008, 02:46 PM
Here are some demo's of some of the bits working. There is still a lot to do, but this should provide a taster.

This one shows a demo of the satellite navigation system (it does work for driving with the GPS, but I didn't want to film and drive!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyGHaSoZcTk

This one shows the finger-friendly Ubuntu Mobile Interface and the on-screen keyboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGlaYL1Rav0

And last but not least this one shows the flashier iphone-esque interface;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZN7IzPsRg
hazmat
10-09-2008, 03:30 PM
I like what you've done but don't you find it too low for safety. you must take your eyes off of the driving field of vision to look at the device...could be dangerous. I know you are seeking an aesthetically pleasing install but maybe a Ram Mount higher up would be safer.
danmiddle2
10-09-2008, 04:21 PM
I like what you've done but don't you find it too low for safety. you must take your eyes off of the driving field of vision to look at the device...could be dangerous. I know you are seeking an aesthetically pleasing install but maybe a Ram Mount higher up would be safer.

Actually I find I almost never look at the screen on any system I have ever used; I tend to use Sat Nav almost entirely based on Voice Guidance, just glancing at it for the occasional bit of clarity coming up to a large roundabout. Also - it seems to look a lot lower in that video for some reason than it seems in real life. As I'm pretty tall, I tend to have the seat all the way down and back and I think I was holding the camera up quite high.

If you look just to the left of the UX in the video you'll see my phone mounting bracket, and I've been using TomTom on my N82 phone for quite a while without any difficulty... and that has a much smaller screen.

I appreciate that having it that low wouldn't suit everyone, and indeed wouldn't suit every car... but the beauty of the UX is that it could be mounted pretty much anywhere you like.
hazmat
10-09-2008, 04:28 PM
The only other question I have is do you remove the UX when you leave the car for say a grocery trip ? And if not are you worried about theft or damage from heat/cold ?
danmiddle2
10-09-2008, 04:37 PM
The only other question I have is do you remove the UX when you leave the car for say a grocery trip ? And if not are you worried about theft or damage from heat/cold ?

I haven't started using it extensively yet; but I only plan on using it for long journeys really. I don't plan on leaving it in the car for long periods when I'm away... but I tend not to worry too much about theft generally anyway.