Touch Screen Interface

[upstatemike]

I was looking at this webpage this morning and was very impressed with the graphics and overall presentation. Is it possible to adapt a page like this to a touchscreen interface for a Home Automation system? I would be a lot more interested in touchscreen controls if they incorporated this level of animation!

 

[Spanky]

That program is a Micromedia FLASH program. FLASH drivers need to be on the Touchscreen.

Yes it is possible.

 

[Steve]

Yeah, I would imagine this may be possible with Mainlobby since I think you can import flash scenes. I also saw some other technology with animated people - need to look for that again.

 

[DavidL]

Yuppers, thats the kind of stuff that can be done with Flash.
Now, to get animated assets to run within MainLobby is dependent on how the programming was done within the Flash file.

If you looked at Cinemar's DVDLobby T3 version, you will see some of this animation in automation. MainLobby uses Flash subtlely in many other areas. For example, when you build a weather scene using the new WeatherLobby 3 graphical components, they have some life to them. The wind direction compass spins and comes to rest on the actual wind direction, the wind speed gauge bounces a bit when you open the scene. All of this give that next level, but subtle, touches that only flash provides.

Of course, it can also be used "in your face" like the neat stuff on that webpage. Programming that takes a good deal of time.

 

[ph0n33z]

I see that you are a LOST junkie as well, eh mike? hehe

 

[upstatemike]

Can't help it. It just draws you in!

 

[Rupp]

I was looking at this webpage this morning and was very impressed with the graphics and overall presentation. Is it possible to adapt a page like this to a touchscreen interface for a Home Automation system? I would be a lot more interested in touchscreen controls if they incorporated this level of animation!

Ok. I've tried viewing this link on 4 different machines and none of them work. I have the latest version of flash (8) loaded. Any suggestions.

 

[upstatemike]

I just tried it again and it still works for me. I don't even know what flash is so I doubt if I have the latest (or any) version installed. I am running plain vanilla IE.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Wow - amazing site. They clealy spent a ton of money doing that!

 

[IVB]

I was looking at this webpage this morning and was very impressed with the graphics and overall presentation. Is it possible to adapt a page like this to a touchscreen interface for a Home Automation system? I would be a lot more interested in touchscreen controls if they incorporated this level of animation!

Ok. I've tried viewing this link on 4 different machines and none of them work. I have the latest version of flash (8) loaded. Any suggestions.

In addition to the obvious programming difficulties (flash is waaaaay beyond me), this is one of the reasons I want to stay as far away from flash as possible for my setup.

God knows I've got enough points of failure, I certainly don't need to be introducing any more.

 

[DavidL]

IVB, that is why with MainLobby, you get the advantages of Flash without having to know anything about Flash programming. Flash programming, like any other development language can be a point of failure if you don't know what you are implementing. Cinemar does this well, so a MainLobby customer doesn't have to worry about Flash or any of the other software components as "points of failure". If one doesn't have appropriate Windows libraries or components installed correctly, ANY software can (and does) have issues. Our experience is that Flash is the least troublesome. Those that don't have extensive Flash experience can't make this claim.

 

[Rupp]

Well I figured it out and it was caused by my machine not having the latest version of flash (8). I loaded it and now I have the Yahoo tool bar and a boat load of other JUNK. This is the very reason I do not like flash.

 

[upstatemike]

IVB, that is why with MainLobby, you get the advantages of Flash without having to know anything about Flash programming.

Can MainLobby give me an interface that looks like that web site without any programming? If so, I'm there!

 

[IVB]

IVB, that is why with MainLobby, you get the advantages of Flash without having to know anything about Flash programming. Flash programming, like any other development language can be a point of failure if you don't know what you are implementing. Cinemar does this well, so a MainLobby customer doesn't have to worry about Flash or any of the other software components as "points of failure". If one doesn't have appropriate Windows libraries or components installed correctly, ANY software can (and does) have issues. Our experience is that Flash is the least troublesome. Those that don't have extensive Flash experience can't make this claim.

I have a question, don't want anyone to read anything into this, i just want to legitimately know the answer. I'm not paid by anyone for anything, so I want to make sure i'm always informed about what everyone is doing. That's the only way I can be truly independent.

With ML and that capability you speak of, would my ML instance look like everyone else's? As you can see by my choice of backgrounds, I generally dislike the look that most of the populace does. I look at ML/DVDL/etc, and I see something similar to the AMX/Crestron/etc pre-fab scenarios: Choosing nice words, I'd say clean, slick, professional. Choosing my words, in my own opinion, certainly no one elses since Cinemar & 99.9% of the GUI's are doing so well, I think it looks sterile and unapproachable.

Would I need to know flash in order to change the look&feel, so that my ML didn't look like most folks? Could you walk us through what we'd have to do if I wanted pulldown menus/etc, but using my own vladstudio.com/art based look&feel?

 

[Rupp]

IVB, that is why with MainLobby, you get the advantages of Flash without having to know anything about Flash programming. 

Can MainLobby give me an interface that looks like that web site without any programming? If so, I'm there!

The new Maestro plugin for HS will build an an interface with no programming that looks really good. There's no interaction required other than telling Maestro what devices you want to expose. It does all of the work for you out of the box.

http://www.harmony-home.com/