Web 2.0 plus BAS Graphics (UX) Today our web browsers can use the hardware resources of our graphics cards, and with the advancement of HTML5, our industry will see user interface advancements that most of us could not have imagined a decade ago.

Alper Uzmezler, BAS Services & Graphics, LLC.   alper@bassg.com

In 2007 I wrote an article about BAS graphics with the title of “BAS Graphics Past, Now and Future”. In this article I discussed the future of web-based technologies and their possible uses in the BAS industry, and I predicted that Javascript libraries would have a possible positive impact on the BAS graphics front. Now in 2011, we’re finally seeing the predictions of that article, and there have been fantastic new improvements which are being adapted to the BAS industry graphics.

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One of the most intriguing advancements has been our web browsers. Today our web browsers can use the hardware resources of our graphics cards, and with the advancement of HTML5, our industry will see user interface advancements that most of us could not have imagined a decade ago. Below is a sample of an HTML5 render on the Google Chrome platform that uses WebGL standards. In this example, there are 500 fishes and the browser is able to render the animation at 45 frames per second on my PC.

This has a huge benefit for BAS industry on the graphics side. There are only a handful of companies using the benefits of the latest generation browsers. SkySpark is a marvelous product that is able to visually represent advanced charts with the use of HTML5.

Google Chrome Experiments	Skyfoundry UI Sample (HTML5)
WebGL-Aquarium	Image courtesy of SkyFoundry.com

Another exciting enhancement has just been released on the Flash side as well. In my last article, I had mentioned about 3D being pushed to the web. Adobe has just announced Molehill API that’s able to use the hardware resources to render 3D objects on its Flash player. There are already Flash-based 3D engines on the market, but these technologies were utilizing the CPU and memory cycles of the computer, something that limited the total number vertices that can be shown inside the Flash player. With the Molehill api, 3D flash engines like Alternativa3D, Flare3D, Away3D, Sophie3D, Yogurt3D, and others will be able to generate more realistic and more robust 3D graphics. These engines can easily be implemented to use bring building information model data to the web. All the BIM data can be incorporated with the BAS data and the graphics.

 
Image courtesy of BASGraphics.com       Click here to watch the video 

Currently our company can create slick animated graphics that are very photo-realistic, but the benefit of these sharp graphics are lost if the user experience (UX) is poor when viewing the BAS site. In order to provide the best user experience with the least amount of development time, we’ve tackled these design issues with a template module that not only simplifies the user experience, but also enables mobile devices to access the BAS system.
   
Enabling mobile devices to access BAS graphics is very important. basTemplateMavi is a template module that works with any Tridium Niagara Framework, and is a licensed product that simplifies page generation for mobile devices such Android, iPhone 4, and iPad. The templates are generated automatically and uses the existing HX framework.

We’re able to create a template that matches any corporate style for a small fee as well. All the tools that simplifies the PX generation is also implemented to save time.

Click on image	PC Screen	Device Screen
Ipad
Android (Evo)
Iphone 4

BAS systems are getting more complex every day, and with more complex algorithms and sequences, this puts a burden on control contractors. The effect of this burden is that it takes away from the time spent on developing and implementing graphics. Due to this reason, BASGraphics.com implemented the PxSnap™ feature that works on Niagara Framework, which saves a tremendous amount of time. All graphic components snap to the corresponding component, and snap distance can be changed from the workbench property window as well. A complex AHU can be built in less than 3 minutes with the PxSnap™  feature. We’re happy to be offering these updates free to our valued customers.

 

Sample graphics and modules
Image courtesy of BASGraphics.com	Image courtesy of BASGraphics.com   Click here to watch the video
Image courtesy of BASGraphics.com	Image courtesy of BASGraphics.com

Niagara Framework is trademark of Tridium, Inc.
SkySpark is trademark of SkyFoundry, Inc.
PxSnap™ technology is trademark of Gemini Integration.

About the Author
Alper Uzmezler, BAS Services & Graphics, LLC.
Alper is a systems and graphics designer specializing in Tridium integration.  He has been working in the building automation industry for over 10 years.   He started in Turkey working on computer hardware, modeling 3d graphics.  He has worked on systems reaching from Guam to New York and all over the United States in between.

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