A Graphical User
Interface FRAMEWORK for digital television
César Pablo and Vuorimaa Petri
Telecommunications Software
and Multimedia Laboratory
Helsinki University of
Technology
P.O.
Box 5400 FI-02015 HUT
FINLAND
Tel: +358 9 4515128
Fax: +358 9 4515351
E-mail: pcesar@tml.hut.fi and Petri.Vuorimaa@hut.fi
ABSTRACT
Currently, the number of non-PC devices used for interactive
applications is increasing. Digital television set-top boxes, PDAs, and mobile
phones are typical examples. Interactive applications are controlled via a
Graphical User Interface (GUI). Consequently, a GUI framework is required. The
objective is a unified GUI framework for all these new devices. Since one of
the new devices is digital television, an implementation of a digital
television GUI framework is presented. It has been developed following the HAVi
specifications. Its main characteristics are use of Java, separation of look
and feel, and lightweight widgets. The implementation is tested with a digital
television application. The main conclusion proposed is that new devices should
use a device-oriented GUI framework implementation. Moreover, specific
implementations can be obtained by modifying the look or feel of the widgets.
Keywords: Digital
television, DVB-MHP, GUI, HAVi, Java.