Beagle Board with a Rich User Interface
Derek Molloy · 2018
In this chapter the reader is introduced to rich user interface (UI) architectures and application development on the BeagleBone. Rich UIs allow for a depth of interaction with an application that is not possible with command-line interfaces (CLIs)-in particular, the addition of graphical display elements can result in easier-to-use applications. Also introduced are different Beagle board architectures that can support rich UIs, such as general-purpose computing, touch screen display modules, and virtual network computing (VNC). Different software application frameworks are examined for rich UI development, such as GTK+ and Qt. The Qt framework is the focus of the discussion, largely due to its comprehensive libraries of code. An example rich UI application is developed for a Beagle board that uses the TMP36 temperature sensor. Finally, a feature-rich remote fat-client application framework is developed, and two example applications are described-one that uses the TMP36 sensor and a second that uses the ADXL345 accelerometer.