I was playing around thinking about visualizations and navigation on my unit. I actually thought about it even before I got my unit. Im playng around now technically , but first i had to sketch out my ideas. Keep in mind they are real rough , but I have been pondering it for a while. After looking at the Pioneer DEHP-8000 in the store , it galvanzied me into action.

The screen real estate on the EMPEG is not that big and it is monochrome , but there is a lot that can be done in smaller spaces than that..

first i thought about navigation. How important is it to really see the visualization in the background while you navigate the menus? The menu's block most of the information and visuals , especially when navigating several sub levels into the heirarchy. Even if you are in the passenger seat , the menu elements are not that big. Here are several examples of a menu screen i thought might work:


the entire window is replaced with a scrolling menu... to the right is a small box with an Icon that represents the menu element. Easy to see when you are driving but able enuf to work the remote or press the buttons.



This image shows selecting the source menu item: it shows the current source as an Icon in the window to the right.



Into the submenu , it shows the items on the Source menu. To the right is shows tyou are on Radio still. If you selected EMPEG or AUXILLARY you would see the appropiate icon in the window to the right.

then i thought aboout the radio screen



This isnt extremely well developed (my version) :) What it does do is used unused screen real estate to have a bigger , clearer station ID. To the right is an Icon to let you know your in radio (which also is for eye candy) The semi circles radiating outward indicate signal. The RDS information is scrolling across the bottom portion of the left window.

This is some alternate visualizations im fleshing out:



this is a generic space scene. stars sort of floating around with large metetors and a occasional falling star streek down to the huge planet. This rough graphic could really use some work to get the point across :)



This looked better in my head.. its a space ship (looking a lot like a space shuttle in line art tinted blue) headed to a wireframed planet rotating. Peaceful , aww who looks at these things when your driving anyway.. (WE DO!)




These are two cities in the window.. the would rotate around in 3d.. probably grab a helicopter shop of the city , reduce the frames and convert it.. or you could get a slightly overheadd still and rotate it yourself thru maniuplation to get a sort of spinning effect.. or panning effect. Hey.. could have all the major cities of the world! NY , Chicago , San Francisco ,Dallas , Paris urr.. London!


Icons window option for the visualizations.. probably better without them actually.. I only showed verrsion with the icon. Maybe even have icons for all the mp3 ID3tags.. that yoou could turn on and off.. Sax for Jazz , urr.. yeah.. Sax for Jazz .. cowboy hat for country? or a Spur? hmm.. Baseball cap for Rap? what about Alternative? Dirty Gap Clothes.. hmm..

all images are 256x 64 pixels

I'm really just thinking aboout navigation a lot. I have some ideas for graphic Equalization that'll ill post later and several more visualzation ruff mockups. I want to suss out making new Visualizations first on the EMPEG using one good new one! :)

Thoughts , Comments , Flames?







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