Interactive UI development using SVG

Thesis Subject – Interactive UI development using SVG

This paper specifies a Thesis Subject within the area of advanced IP based digital media systems, consisting of hardware (set-top boxes), embedded software (platform and applications) and server software.

Overview

For IP based set-top boxes the browser environment is by most application developers the preferred environment (over e.g. C/C++ and Java). The reason is to a large extent the flexibility and the portability offered by the browser environment. The most obvious disadvantage of this application environment is the memory usage and low performance. Another issue is the difficulty to build animated interfaces because slow browser rendering results in low fps.

This thesis work aims at investigating the possibilities of using SVG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics) for defining and rendering set-top box user interfaces.

The goal is to add support for SVG in our platform. The thesis worker must investigate the possibilities for either upgrading our Mozilla browser environment with SVG support (e.g. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/svg/) or porting an open-source SVG browser (e.g. http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/) to our Linux platform.

An important aspect of the thesis is to figure out if rendering can be accelerated using existing hardware.

Expected Output

Investigation of SVG and related techniques and their relevance for application development on an IP based set-top box.

Investigation of different tools and libraries for authoring and rendering SVG.

Either updating our Mozilla browser or porting a standalone SVG browser (or both).

Implementation of one or more TV centric applications using interactive SVG.

A qualitative measurement comparing traditional browser based applications development and development using the investigated technologies and tools concerning memory usage, work flow, performance etc.

Required/Merited Skills

SVG, HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, XML
Java, C++
Linux
Embedded Systems

The position is at our Kista Office.