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The PSION Wavefinder - shown below - was the world's first
plug-in digital radio for the PC. Developed in conjunction with
Julian Storer from
Raw Material Software, the design brief was to provide an innovative
and functional front end for the USB DAB decoder, which was a joint project
between UK-based DAB radio specialists
RadioScape and manufacturer
Psion PLC (it is shown on this page in its RadioScape-branded 'skin'). 
The completed design showed the various radio stations as animated icons,
which open up as you move over them to display various controls.
Also, these station 'tiles' could be pulled off from the interface panel
itself and reside on your computer desktop, so you could listen to the radio
(and read the DAB text broadcasts) without cluttering up your computer's interface.In order to create a different 'identity' for each DAB station, a scripting language was developed specially for the DAB receiver. Based around XML, this allowed every component of each station to be editable and animated. Below are two station icons - the default DAB icon, and a station icon for 'Classic FM' that uses a GIF logo and texture maps:
Move cursor over icons to open up Click on to display
text box
This scripting language allows more complex animations of shape and movement
to be achieved, as in this station icon for the DAB broadcast of
dance music station 'Ministry of Sound':
Move cursor over icon
The PSION Wavefinder could also download and display web pages and
record DAB transmissions as MP2 and MP3 files. It really was very good, and
everyone who used it got a real kick out of playing with all the smooth, slidey
buttons and controls - and I had the clear, blue plastic thing going long before
Jonathan Ives had smelted down his first iMac... Click on the buttons below for a couple of (sadly static) screenshots of the PSION Wavefinder in action. |
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 › Playing |
 › Virgin icon |
 › Web pages |
 › Recordings |
 › Channels |
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