Elektrobit released v6.10 of its EB Guide automotive HMI software for Android and Windows plus a free EB Guide GTF runtime SDK for the Raspberry Pi. EB Guide 6.10 enhances namespaces, tag filtering, editing, and more.

Elektrobit (EB), which was once a general-purpose developer of embedded software and hardware, such as its EB Specialized Device Platform for rugged Android handhelds, long ago converted to an automotive software company with a range of frameworks, middleware, and AUTOSAR distributions. Its EB Guide automotive HMI development software, which has been used in HMI systems deployed in more than 50 million cars, was recently updated to version 6.10, which adds the Raspberry Pi as a development platform to join Android and Windows.

The Raspberry Pi is supported only on the EB Guide Graphics Target Framework (GTF) SDK run-time environment. The GTF package runs under Raspbian Buster (Raspberry Pi OS) and is used to execute EB Guide models created by the separate EB Studio.

EB Guide 6.10 with Raspberry Pi (left) and new namespaces structure in EB Studio
(click images to enlarge)

In addition to EB Studio, which is available in both a commercial and free community version, Elektrobit offers an EB Guide Monitor debugging package and a significantly updated version of EB Guide arware for augmented reality HMIs. EB Guide is claimed to be hardware and OS agnostic when it comes to target devices.

We found out about the release last week from Embedded Computing Design. The news was announced in July and was reposted by various automotive publications.

Embedded Computing Design quotes Bruno Grasset, Head of Product Management User Experience, Elektrobit, as saying: “Raspberry Pi may not end [up] in a car but at least it’s now helping in developing user interfaces or new concepts before having any other choices made and you can do all of this during the development cycle.”

EB Guide provides collaborative development tools that support HMI GUIs for vehicle head units, head-up displays, and instrument clusters. Programmed in C++, the software exploits hardware accelerated OpenGL ES 2.x and 3.x. EB Studio provides HMI effects such as coloration, rotation, scaling, shearing, and translation.

EB Studio 6.10 screen showing layout persistance
(click image to enlarge)

EB Guide 6.10 adds a new namespace structure and a new tag filtering system for handling large amounts of data. Developers can now export languages and skin settings and more easily access tutorials, extensions, and examples. There is also a new layout persistence feature and editor handling improvements.

Version 6.10 updates the API level of the SDK for Android, enabling support for the latest Android tablets and other devices. The improvements include advanced graphics plus voice-, touch-, and gesture-based controls such as those used in the VW ID. series vehicles and the Sony Vision S concept car shown at CES 2020, says Elektrobit.

 
Further information

EB Guide GTF SDK for Raspberry Pi is available for free download. More information may be found in Elektrobit’s EB Guide 6.10 announcement and GTF RPi announcement, as well as its EB Guide website.