1 April March 2008, Sydney Australia

FST TO SHOWCASE ADVANCED GUI AND HIGH PERFORMANCE MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM AT ESC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FancyPants v2.0, “BlueJeans”, provides leading OEMs and ODMs previously unreachable capabilities with innovative embedded GUI design.

31 March 2008, Sydney, Australia: FST, a global provider of products and services for next-generation Graphical User Interfaces in embedded devices, announced the official launch of FancyPants v2.0 “BlueJeans”, to be showcased in Booth 3072A at the Embedded Systems Conference - San Jose, 15-17 April, 2008 (www.cmp-egevents.com/web/esv/home).



The award winning FancyPants platform enables OEMs and ODMs to differentiate their products and dramatically enhance the end-user experience, with state-of-the-art embedded applications in devices including smart phones, set top boxes, portable media players, rich Internet devices, in-car telematics and infotainment, kiosks and home automation. FancyPants lets developers create feature rich devices with an advanced GUI, and high performance multimedia capabilities, all with reduced hardware requirements and portability across chip sets and embedded OSes, speeding time to market.


The FancyPants SDK provides a powerful and easy to use API, with an embedded runtime optimised for available hardware, including graphics acceleration and native CODECs. The flexible design of the FancyPants plugin architecture enables effortless integration of hardware and 3rd party CODECs and embedded browsers, while the sophisticated theming capability, for the look, feel and layout of screens, maximises branding and personalisation opportunities. A range of built in visual special effects ensures the eye catching nature of devices built with FancyPants.


FancyPants 2.0 builds on success of earlier versions which enabled a generation of products from VeriFone, the world's leading OEM of secure POS transaction devices, with advanced graphics and full motion video. VeriFone now distributes FancyPants to their international development centers and clients. “It's really made a difference in making our product truly sexy!!” said Sydney Green, V.P. Global Market Development, VeriFone USA.



FancyPants 2.0 recently received an Australian National ICT Innovation Award and was accepted into the prestigious Australian Technology Showcase. The beta version of FancyPants 2.0 has been tested by numerous industry partners and was demonstrated at CES 2008 in a highly innovative UMPC / MID consumer targeted product from a tier 1 OEM.


WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 2.0

FancyPants 2.0 delivers ground breaking technology with tools to really create something fresh and unique, without the need for specialised hardware. FancyPants can be used for single applications or for the entire application stack.


The major features of FancyPants v2.0 include:

  • FancyPants-CanvasServer: An optional module, introducing the capability for multiple embedded applications to simultaneously run on a single screen with a seamless alpha blended user interface, including support for multiple operating systems and CPUs within a single device.
  • ScriptObjects: Supporting the definition, placements, movement and visual effects of some GUI elements via an external XML file.
  • Video Thumbs and Video Buttons: Thumbnails of videos playing the video at thumbnail size and allowing video to be placed on buttons.
  • Custom Thumbnail Shapes: Moving away from rectangular thumbnails.
  • A Visual Effects Framework: With many built in effects and methods to create custom effects.
  • Real time screen rotation.
  • 18 and 24 bit framebuffer support, asynchronous API and pre-multiplied colors for higher performance in a wider range of devices, in addition to 4 bit gray, 8, 15 and 16 bit support.



FancyPants 2.0 will be demonstrated at the “Disruption Zone”, ESC 2008, McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, which showcases technologies and services that deliver substantial improvements in embedded design and performance, change the competitive landscape or entail new business models that change industry dynamics.


About FST

FST specializes in providing advanced GUI and high-performance multimedia products for embedded application development, backed by comprehensive custom development services. Since 1995, customers include Toshiba, VeriFone, Ericsson, HP, Optus, Vodafone and GEC. FST also undertakes joint research and marketing with NICTA - Australia's ICT Research Centre of Excellence.


For more information, visit www.fst.net or email: info@fst.net.


For More Information

Stan Ghys
Business Development and International Marketing
FST
Phone: +61 2 9281 9055
Email: stan@fst.net
www.fst.net