MeeGo Conference IVI and Pelagicore joining the Linux Foundation

It has been announced that Pelagicore AB has now joined the Linux Foundation. Pelagicore AB is a company who applies open source software to develop of automotive infotainment products. They have joined the Linux Foundation specifically to participate in the building of the MeeGo In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference design.

Also today, Rudolf Streif of the Linux Foundation, hosted a work-group session at the 2010 MeeGo conference in Dublin, to present they key challenges and considerations of MeeGo IVI. Read on for more details and our photo coverage.

Rudolf Streif speaking at the MeeGo Conference IVI work group

The GENIVI alliance is a non-profit organisation, whose members include the BMW Group, Delphi, GM, and Intel. MeeGo was selected by GENIVI as the basis of its next platform release. MeeGo IVI is already engaging in wide-spread collaboration with: car makers and various automotive consortia (e.g. GENIVI), semiconductor companies, operating system vendors, and independent software vendors, and of course the community.

Furthermore, Pelagicore are already experts in both IVI software and developing in the Qt development framework. It therefore makes sense from a governance point of view for Pelagicore to join the Linux Foundation which already oversees the governance of the MeeGo project.

As reported in the Linux Foundation's press release:

"Pelagicore understands this evolution of the automotive infotainment industry and is a leading contributor to MeeGo’s IVI reference design. It is working with the MeeGo community to include a Qt-based IVI user experience, while Nokia is working with the Consumer Electronics For Automotive Group (CE4A) on Terminal Mode, a proposed industry standard for the integration of mobile applications into the car environment. The combination of MeeGo, Qt and Terminal Mode extends the capabilities of IVI with the ability to update during the life of the vehicle, enhancing the usability of mobile device capabilities in the automotive environment."

Meanwhile, at today's IVI working group session, Rudolf Streif (of the Linux Foundation) gave a presentation outlining what is required in the development of MeeGo as an IVI platform, and the current state of development.

The MeeGo IVI Hardware and Software Stack

In the session Streif told everyone that MeeGo needs to add features and functionality, as detailed below, to become a viable IVI solution.

Vehicle Buses Controller Area Network (CAN) Media Orientated Systems Transport (MOST) FlexRay Local Interconnect Network (LIN)   Human Machine Interface (HMI) Multi-zone Video Split Screen Layered HMI Video Policies (priorities)   Audio Management Multi-zone Audio Audio Routing and Ramping Audio Policies (priorities)   Hands-free Phone/Control Voice Recognition Text-to-speech Acoustic Echo Cancellation Noise Suppression

User Input Button, Knobs, Joysticks, Touch, Gestures   Software Updates Kernel Boot <250ms Device Activation <50ms from ignition Early Audio <2s; Early Video <2s Secure boot loader   Network Connectivity   CE Device Connectivity iPod/iPad, iPhone, Zune, MP3 Players, USB Drives, Android, Blackberry, Meego, etc.   IVI Application Framework Standardised access to vehicle data e.g. fuel level, temperature, rain sensor, etc. Control API

This is a relatively new context for consumer electronics; as such, the anatomy of the platform is completely different. From an in-vehicle entertainment point of view, there is one main control interface, yet there are up to five users/consumers. Each of whom may all require separate audio and video streams routing to their display. Also, the safety aspect is of course a top priority; if IVI is to be viable, it will eventually become the platform on which in-vehicle instrumentation is built. This places requirements that the data be shown in real time, and system crashes are out of the question.

The anatomy of IVI technology

 

David Gilson for All About MeeGo, 15th November 2010