A Text-Based User Interface Style Toolkit for Low-Tier Embedded Systems

Applying computer graphics technology to the various platforms, consumers expect modern graphical user interfaces, even on low-tier devices. We aimed at a balanced solution between consumer expectations and resource restrictions on the low-tier embedded systems. We started from the pixel-level graphics primitives, and introduced a character cell-based grid over the screen. Thus, our user interface toolkit works similarly to text-based user interface libraries, to finally reduce required computing resources. From the functional point of view, in contrast, it provides most of modern user interface features including pull-down menus, pop-up menus, dialog boxes, and others, while most of previous text-based user interface libraries provide only low-level primitives.