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XAML plug-in for automotive solutions

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CIOL Bureau
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LAS VEGAS: EB (Elektrobit), a developer of embedded technology solutions for automotive and wireless industries, has provided a new XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) plug-in to connect the HMI developmenttool EB GUIDE Studio to Microsoft Expression BlendTM. This means that complex HMIs developed with Expression Blend and the description language XAML can now be easily specified and administered.

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This is used to develop graphical user interfaces and speech dialog solutions for the automotive market. Expression Blend is a design tool for the development of interactive user interfaces running on Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or Microsoft Silverlight. Graphical elements are defined using XAML, a general description language developed by Microsoft Corp. for the interface design of applications.

Expression Blend works with EB GUIDE Studio using the newXAML plug-in, so that graphical XAML elements from Expression Blend can simply and easily be controlled by EB GUIDE Studio state charts. The integration of the tools is bidirectional, that is, Expression Blend also has access to system data and events from EB GUIDE Studio. In an on-the-fly simulation, developers can experience the menu selections modeled by EB GUIDE Studio and the graphical user interface from Expression Blend directly on their PC.

"With Microsoft Visual Studio and Expression Blend, developers can create applications and HMIs for embedded devices. With its illustrated UML state charts, EB GUIDE Studio is the tool of choice for the development of complex HMIs in the automobile. Together with Microsoft, we have created the XAML plug-in to provide the option of using EB GUIDE Studio for HMI development with Expression Blend. The focus is on system modeling on the PC," says Thomas Fleischmann, EB GUIDE product manager at EB.

“With EB GUIDE Studio and Expression Blend, developers will be able to build creative embedded solutions that can be easily specified and administered through EB’s new XAML plug-in,” said Jon Harris, senior product manager for Expression Blend at Microsoft. “EB GUIDE Studio takes advantage of the rich capabilities and features in Expression Blend to easily create and administer complex applications and HMIs.”

The XAML plug-in for EB GUIDE Studio will be available from EB in the first quarter of 2010.