Embedded browser, GUI toolkit render bidirectional text

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Dec. 16, 2004

Espial has enhanced its Java-based embedded browser and GUI toolkit for STBs (set-top boxes) and mobile phones with right-to-left (RTL) text rendering capabilities. It says devices built with its Escape browser and/or Espresso toolkit can be deployed in the Middle East after minor customizations are made using HTML and CSS.

Espial launched the Escape browser in early 2000. It supports x86, MIPS, PowerPC, and ST Micro chips, along with international TV standards that include MHP, OCAP, and ARIB. It uses fit-to-width, font flooring, and other techniques to adapt Web and Flash content for TV viewing. It requires a Java VM (virtual machine), such as Espial's portability engine. The browser is used in i3's Mood box, a Linux-based STB recently rolled out in Belgium, and in in-room entertainment systems in German hotels.

Espial's Espresso is a mature, 100 percent Java, lightweight GUI toolkit said to enable the creation of rich graphical user interfaces for embedded Java applications.

RTL support in Escape and Espresso is optional, based on market requirements, Espial says.

RTL text is supported by the W3C's HTML, XHTML, CSS2, and CSS3 specifications, which offer various ways to specify text direction and orientation (vertical or horizontal).

Espial says its RTL technology can properly render HTML tables, forms, and other Web elements in RTL languages, while enabling designers to customize user interface elements for geographic regions using Web authoring languages such as HTML. It also says the technology intuitively reverses the caret (^) or cursor orientation and movement within an RTL environment.

According to Espial, web pages and GUIs written in Hebrew, Arabic, and other languages are often bidirectional (bidi) in nature, because they often include words or phrases from other languages, such as English. It says its technology supports this, for example enabling the locale of an application to be set to Hebrew, while drop-down menus can be set to display in English.

Additionally, Espial says it has enhanced "HTML, CSS, and GUI component properties" to support mixed direction text flow for numerical input, and for lists that include both RTL and LTR elements.

Director of Product Marketing Denise MacDonell said, "Espial already provides a single code base that includes Unicode support, common text encoding, and is more easily localized than any other embedded solution. Adding RTL support for Web content and UI components results in a powerful approach to doing business internationally."

Espial also markets a lightweight Java-free app stack for STBs, the Evo, and has ported the Escape browser to the SavaJe, a bare-metal Java OS. It says the Escape browser is used in more than 100 products that are marketed globally.

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