Altia ON: 2023 Piaggio MP3

Motorcycle and motorbike companies such as Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki, Piaggio and Triumph trust Altia software to drive the graphics of their most advanced multi-functional displays. Here is a shining example of the safety, style and performance that Altia can deliver—the Piaggio MP3.

This is the most advanced and luxurious model ever produced by Piaggio, the pioneer and leader of the three-wheeler segment. This three-wheeler features a 7-inch TFT display, the largest display in its category. This display functions as the control and connection center for Piaggio’s MIA connectivity system, which allows drivers to access calls, manage playlists and use GPS. Drivers can also customize the display according to their needs and preferences.

Using the instrument cluster, which is clearly inspired by high class cars on the road, riders can manage numerous features including navigation, connectivity and, on the 530 hpe Exclusive version, also the engine maps (Comfort, Eco and Sport) and cruise control, as well as clearly displaying the images of the rear camera while reversing (exclusive to this equipment).

Take a ride on a Piaggio MP3 with this YouTuber to see this gorgeous display in action!

The TFT also integrates the innovative ARAS (Advanced Rider Assistance System) devices, which are based on a 4D imaging radar technology developed by Piaggio Fast Forward. The ARAS devices include the BLIS® (Blind Spot Information System) and the LCDAS (Lane Change Decision Aid System), which alert drivers to fast-approaching vehicles and help them avoid collisions. These devices are exclusive to the Piaggio MP3 and make it the first scooter to be equipped with such advanced safety systems.

Delivering innovative UX for embedded displays is Altia’s specialty. Designed into over 100 million cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, medical devices, home appliances and more, we offer production-proven software and services for getting pixel-perfect graphics to production.

Visit www.altia.com/get-started. Let’s get your next GUI on the road together!

Altia: The Complete HMI Platform for Automotive Cockpit Displays

As the automotive industry moves closer and closer to fully autonomous, even lower end vehicles are evolving into rolling computers—with ever-increasing interconnectivity and complexity in the vehicle cockpit. Car buyers now expect to be connected to the outside world—and OEMs are responding to their requirements. It is estimated that by 2030, 95% of all new vehicles will incorporate intermediate or advanced infotainment, telematics and V2X capabilities to communicate between vehicles, users and infrastructure.

With these dramatic shifts in technologies from more mechanical and analog controls to those that are partially or fully digital, automotive OEMs are challenged with anticipating how customers interact with their vehicles, namely through the human-machine interface (HMI).

The HMI acts as a hub of the wheel for the vehicle cockpit’s connected user experience, integrating the spokes that provide information to the driver while sending commands to the various systems both inside and outside the car. The considerable shift toward electrification and autonomous vehicles has resulted in new regulatory requirements. These requirements have compelled OEMs and suppliers to invest more R&D into user interface hardware and software lifecycles and integration, whether their digital cockpits include a multitude of dedicated displays in a single vehicle to just a single in-dash touchscreen.

But the simplicity of a well-architected UI masks great complexity. Cockpit software design includes many considerations, such as how to integrate multiple compute domains and vehicle applications across varying operating systems. Customers have grown accustomed to smartphones being at their side—so how can OEMs keep them connected to their communication and entertainment while adhering to regulations for driver safety and attention? How can OEMs maintain brand continuity between native HMI screens, multiple connectivity solutions and those of the passengers’ personal devices? This is a complex challenge encompassing a vast number of varying requirements, especially given the increase in autonomy. OEMs can embrace these challenges by leveraging a production-proven platform to bring this all together efficiently.

Meeting OEM Challenges with Proven Innovation

Altia delivers a single, comprehensive platform to meet OEM’s cockpit software challenges and the needs and expectations of their customers. They provide a complete end-to-end cockpit software solution for OEMs by combining the best design tools, advanced technology, customization capabilities and expertise within one unified platform.

Altia has helped some of the largest OEMs create custom HMIs in various vehicles as well as develop and deploy their entire software stack—from sedans, SUVs, semis and motorcycles to electric construction-agriculture equipment and everything in between. The integration of Altia’s powerful features and hardware flexibility in over 100 million production vehicles on the road have been shaping the industry. Altia’s software solution is at the heart of over 375 vehicle dashboards for the upcoming generation.

A Comprehensive Collection of Tools and Expert Service

Altia’s cockpit software platform sets the standard for designing, developing and deploying innovative, first-class automotive user experience. The platform enables display design and deployment on any screen within a car, including instrument clusters, HUDs, infotainment displays, passenger displays and rear passenger entertainment systems. No matter how grand and challenging your vision is, Altia can enable a seamless look and feel in your vehicle cockpits to provide an immersive experience that is representative of the brands across your fleet of vehicles. By reusing the core of your work, Altia enables you to keep design cost-efficient while enabling endless opportunities to differentiate. Providing the tools and expert support you need to bring your UI from concept to production quickly and efficiently, Altia’s HMI development platform saves time and reduces production costs.

Altia Advantages for Automotive

  • Hypervisor operations — HMI cockpit operates on both sides of your hypervisor
  • Code generation — Quick conversion of HMI prototypes and graphics to deployable graphics code across a wide range of hardware
  • Integration and display management — Guidance on how to manage and integrate cockpit real estate to create cohesive and intuitive signature UIs for customers while maintaining brand identity
  • Head-up display expertise — Best-in-class HUDs integration to show system information and advanced driver-assist system (ADAS) warnings to keep drivers’ eyes on the road
  • Automated testing solutions — Reduction in time-to-market HMI testing costs, minimizes human error

Integrations

Altia’s cockpit HMI platform can seamlessly integrate the following services and applications into your displays:

  • Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
  • Third-party mapping programs
  • ADAS
  • Media players
  • Telematics units
  • Automotive infrastructure integrations via Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)

Altia Software Tools and Services Support Every Step of Your HMI Process

With the increasing complexity in the automotive world and increasing demand for OEMs to pull user experience and data ownership in-house, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with an approach to managing it all. Altia is here to bring all the pieces together and help OEMs to realize their automotive user experience goals. Altia guides OEMs through designing, developing and deploying their custom automotive cockpits.

Altia’s complete automotive software platform supports every step of the development process, from concept design through delivery. Altia automotive solutions enable OEMs to meet their digital cockpit goals today and in the future. Altia understands these system complexities and has the proven tools to help you with your automotive software challenges.

Ready to start your automotive cockpit development journey? Altia delivers the expertise, software and services to guide you throughout the process to meet your needs and realize your goals. We would love to hear about your project and how we can help you get it on the road.

Visit www.altia.com/get-started.

Collaboration Improves Designer-Supplier Process and Final Product

“I want a blue line between these sections,” says the UX designer. Into the spec doc it goes: “add a blue line between these sections to improve UI.” It seems simple enough until several stakeholders and contributors interact with the little blue line at different times in the product development process.

“Will it be sky blue or royal blue?” asks marketing. “Should we make it dotted, dashed or solid?” The team agrees that a dotted, royal blue line is best.

With the internal back and forth resolved, it’s the supplier’s turn to ask for design clarifications. “The resolution of our hardware makes dotted lines look fuzzy unless they’re at least five pixels thick, and the line gets distorted at the bezel if it extends to the edge of the screen.”

Now it’s back to internal discussions. Marketing lobbies for hardware with better graphics to bring the original vision to life. Procurement wants to know if there are savings to be had by using a solid black line. The supplier offers a friendly reminder that this iteration isn’t accounted for by the original contract, so now might be the time to renegotiate.

When this collaboration nightmare becomes more like a recurring dream, it burns resources, delays time to market and ultimately shows in the quality of the product. A streamlined process for product development must clarify communication between stakeholders.

Designer to Supplier – Where’s the Disconnect?

Collaborative frustrations can yield feelings of tension every time there’s a handoff of information or responsibility: especially from designer to engineer and engineer to supplier. The real problem isn’t the other teams but the gap in collaboration that separates the teams. Written spec docs become like one long game of telephone:

  • The market demands features.
  • The designer ideates.
  • The engineer implements a technical plan.
  • The supplier executes the plan to deliver a product.

Stakeholders work at different physical locations, often sharing information about visual designs in a text-based format. The finer details get lost in translation until something as simple as a blue line can get blown out of proportion.

Model-Based Development, Functional Specs and Clear Collaboration

Model-based development gets product designers and engineers on the same page. Advancing from written spec docs to model-based graphical user interface (GUI) development solutions eliminates ambiguity, clarifies requirements and reduces rounds of back and forth. Functional specs—in the form of GUI models—replace written spec documents, so everyone is looking at the same blue line. It’s right where it belongs: between the two relevant sections on the GUI model.

Everybody benefits from not having to discuss the blue line ad nauseam.

Rapid prototyping of GUI models accelerates iterative design among internal teams. Stakeholders in various physical locations can collaborate with tight feedback loops. Usability testing can start earlier in the design process, which eliminates supplier-side iterations down the line. Innovative processes for software design, requirement development and code generation create a ripple effect throughout the entire product development lifecycle.

Software Requirements and Hardware Selection

Model-based development yields GUI models which become functional specs to show what the design will look like once implemented. When the engineers can see exactly how the blue line is supposed to look, they can determine which hardware is required to get the right look.

If a design will only look good in high definition, the supplier should expect to use premium hardware that will perform as expected. For simple GUIs that don’t require a lot of fine detail, the supplier should know to use the budget chipsets instead of trying to upcharge for anything unnecessarily advanced.

Bringing implementation closer to the design phase prevents unforeseen problems at the deadline. If a high-end human-machine interface (HMI) design is likely to strain the hardware’s memory and bandwidth, it’s better to find a solution earlier. For example, a low-power code solution can help prevent memory and bandwidth constraints from becoming problematic.

Internal vs. External Iterations

Even with streamlined collaboration, occasional conversations about blue lines and related topics might be unavoidable. The good news is that those conversations can be brief and conclusive instead of confusing and ongoing. Internal stakeholders quickly align around a functional spec in their internal meetings. Once everything has been accounted for in a fully functional spec, the design is set and ready to go to the supplier.

With this process, any external iterations will be implementation-specific and unrelated to redesign. Delivering a turnkey design to suppliers saves them time and resources—all they have to do is execute a design that has every detail accounted for in the model. This is how products get to market as designed, on budget, and ahead of schedule.

Next Steps: Improving Collaboration to Build Better Products Faster

Model-based human-machine interface design helps designers express their visions clearly. Engineers can see the design, so they know exactly what is required in the technical implementation. Suppliers receive a functional model instead of written instructions and even have clear guidance about how to select the appropriate hardware to execute the final product.

A truly comprehensive collaboration solution offers a string of tools to cover the entire product development process. For example, a GUI editor combined with a code generator creates one collaboration suite to take a project from beginning to end. Nothing gets lost in translation.

Investing in the collaboration workflow can save a project, but the benefits don’t end with that one project. Hyundai took complete control of its embedded display design to make future innovation more efficient, too. Gaining control of the collaborative process pays off in every product development project, especially when working with new suppliers to advance previous work.

Getting Started with Altia

Altia’s graphical user interface design and development environment is built to function holistically, with the GUI editor and code generator working in concert. The combination of these two functions is what closes communication gaps between stakeholders. To ease the transition, Altia’s service team helps bridge knowledge gaps to get the initial project to market on time and under budget.

If your GUI project is already underway but perhaps headed in the wrong direction, all is not lost. The Altia Design Jumpstart Bundle includes the development tools and support required to give your GUI a lift off the ground. Get started today, and let’s make it to market the right way.

Altia ON: 2025 Cadillac ESCALADE IQ

The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ is an innovative electric SUV that will combine top-tier luxury with cutting-edge technology. GM relies on Altia for getting its most advanced, intuitive graphics into production – and this cutting-edge redesign of Cadillac’s flagship turned EV will definitely deliver. 

Here’s what we’re most excited about in the Escalade IQ. 

The cockpit interface is incredibly user-friendly, with intuitive menus and rapid responses. Multi-tasking is a breeze, allowing drivers to simultaneously view navigation, play music and monitor vehicle stats without switching screens. Voice recognition, augmented reality navigation and integration with popular apps ensure that drivers are safe, comfortable and connected.

The dash is composed of a sprawling, curved pillar-to-pillar 55″ total diagonal LED display powered by a Snapdragon Cockpit platform from Qualcomm Technologies. Spanning the entire front row, it provides a stunning visual experience for driver and passenger. This massive display is segmented to serve the different needs of front seat passengers—with 35″ dedicated to the driver and 20″ dedicated to the passenger. The passenger side of the display is polarized—making it less visible to the driver thus reducing distraction and clearing the regulatory hurdle that will let passengers stream video or surf the internet while the electric Escalade is on the move. The display can be customized with different themes, widgets and apps, including voice-controlled services like Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play.

Beneath the 55″ screen combination sits an 11″ touchscreen where driver and passenger can access five-zone climate controls, ambient lighting and even the doors (if equipped with the power open-and-close feature).

That cool, connected experience of the Cadillac Escalade IQ extends to the back seat. For models with the Executive Seating package, second-row passengers get two 12.6″ personal screens plus a rear command center screen to control comfort, lighting and more.

Designing, developing and deploying this kind of brand-defining innovation in cockpit displays is exactly what Altia does. We work with automotive OEMs and Tier 1s all over the world—including General Motors—to deliver first class cockpit experiences for production vehicles. Let us help you with your next generation production program. Visit www.altia.com/get-started today.

Altia Learn Drives Results with New Impactful Learning Tools

The modern workforce can be spread far and wide, spanning different time zones and sometimes across the world. As a result, a centralized singular approach to training can prove to be inflexible and challenging to schedule for a busy and dynamic team.

Altia Learn is a new user-friendly online learning management system that empowers graphical user interface (GUI) designers and engineers to learn how to make the most of Altia products by offering an innovative training approach designed for today’s modern workplace. It is built on the premise that every employee has their learning style and time constraints, which means they learn in different ways and at different speeds.

The innovative learning platform allows companies to better understand how their teams learn so that they can deliver on-demand training programs personalized for each individual, regardless of their level of expertise or location.

Tools to Help Your Team Design, Develop and Deploy Your GUI

The Altia Learn platform is designed to help companies increase their employees’ productivity, competencies and engagement while reducing costs associated with training and development programs. It shows what can be built within the embedded GUI space and how to build it through courses consisting of training modules, videos and downloadable resources. After registering, users become part of the Altia Learn User Community, joining an expansive group of Altia users who have already deployed Altia-generated code in over 100 million devices worldwide.

Built on a robust set of learning management tools that provide users access to training materials and resources on demand, the unique learning management system empowers engineers with the tools and knowledge base they need to create innovative products with embedded GUIs. This is accomplished by teaching users how to build user interfaces that are customizable, interactive and responsive to user input. It also includes an extensive library of interactive training courses and tools that allow engineers to measure their understanding of key concepts.

The interactive tutorials are designed as hands-on training activities, reinforcing course content through experiential learning activities. Courses require users to navigate the software interface, complete specific tasks or learn critical concepts related to the software’s functionality. A library of downloadable resources is available for immersive exercises to reinforce processes and concepts that translate into engineers’ real-world workflow.

Each course is designed to be approachable and concise, providing a summary containing the topics covered and videos typically ranging from 5-7 minutes to keep the information manageable and focused.

Altia Learn courses can serve as a helpful reference when needed. If a challenge arises, engineers can return to a training module to find and refamiliarize themselves with a particular concept or process they need for the task at hand and quickly return to their workflow with a better understanding of the process.

A Learning Management System Tailored to Your Team’s Needs

Altia believes that employees are the most essential resource of a business, and that training and development is the key to getting the most out of your team. We have, therefore, developed a robust learning management system that allows managers to create learning paths tailored for each user based on their learning goals, job role and familiarity with GUI development through Altia products.

After registration, Altia Learn users are greeted with a dashboard showing an overview of their training history, progress and accomplishments. The overview includes the number of courses they have completed and how many in which they are enrolled, while achievement badges provide positive progress ownership and encouragement in their efforts.

The system also shows available courses, suggests learning paths and recommended courses. Personalized assessments are designed to measure core competencies and identify knowledge gaps to address where additional training can be administered. The assessments include identifying strengths and weaknesses in conceptual understanding and application.

This means managers can design learning plans for individual users based on their preferred learning style or other factors such as current level of expertise or time available for training so that the approach to training is appropriate for the individual and does not waste time with any unnecessary course material. Managers can add courses as the user progresses to provide comprehensive training and meet evolving training goals.

At launch, Altia Learn has a variety of learning modules for users of all skill levels in GUI development, including varied topics such as what makes Altia a leader in embedded graphical user interfaces, how to begin the initial steps of building your specialized dynamic GUIs and how to process automation through Altia GUI development and code generation. New courses will be added to the site regularly to cover an even broader scope of GUI design, development and deployment.

Altia Learn is Your Guide to GUI Success

Altia Learn is a new way to empower Altia’s customers by providing them with the tools they need to successfully design, develop and deploy top-tier graphical user interfaces. The on-demand learning management system delivers immersive, hands-on training materials to teach users how to employ the tasks and concepts covered in the training.

The platform offers the flexibility of being an always-available resource, meeting the needs of all skill levels and competencies through tailored training paths to reduce downtime and increase productivity. Managers can track course progression and address any areas needing improvement while ensuring that their team receives consistent and concise training on Altia’s GUI development software directly from the experts at Altia.

Altia will continue to enhance this program with more resources and training materials, so please check back often or contact us today for more information at altia.com.

Top UI / UX Trends for Medical Device Design

Medical device manufacturers are feeling a massive paradigm shift. Their products are being measured against smartphones, VR headsets and similar consumer technologies. As a result, medical devices must deliver a pleasant, intuitive and engaging user experience (UX). It’s not enough for medical device user interface (UI) to look sleek and advanced — every aspect of the interface must be fine-tuned to optimize usability and safety.

Current Medical Device Design Trends

With market expectations at an all-time high, medical device manufacturers are eager to meet those expectations by adding new features and improving their products. The following nine trends cover some ways medical device manufacturers can design experiences to meet and exceed rising standards.

1 – Interactive Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) allows people to experience real things in a virtual environment. Immersive, interactive, simulated environments provide excellent opportunities for training and learning. For example, a doctor can prepare for an advanced surgery using VR training exercises.

VR training is a safe way to practice procedures and get repetitions before seeing a live patient. Beyond the educational and surgical planning applications, VR can stimulate mental and physiological processes for patients. As medical device manufacturers identify additional use cases, VR is becoming more common in university research and hospital settings.

2 – Skeuomorphic Design

Improving medical device user interfaces has been a focus for years, particularly relying on recognizable visual cues to enhance the user experience. For example, a stethoscope icon or EKG readout symbol might replace the words “heart rate” on a medical device screen.

One of the primary benefits of such visual cues is that they empower language-agnostic designs. Text-based designs might require you to translate the phrase “heart rate” into numerous languages for potential users. An icon of a stethoscope or an EKG readout is clear regardless of whether the patient speaks English, Spanish or Chinese.

When conceptualizing visual design elements, medical device product teams can choose between flat and skeuomorphic designs. Flat design results in a simple, two-dimensional representation of an object. Adding skeuomorphic qualities like shadows and color variations can give elements the appearance of being shiny or existing in three dimensions.

Choosing a skeuomorphic design is one of the most prevalent healthcare UX trends today because it makes for visually appealing interfaces. However, skeuomorphic design isn’t always the answer. Flat design is still ideal in some situations:

  • For secondary and non-critical controls
  • When the device only contains one or two buttons
  • When on-screen cues help users differentiate interactive controls from static text

Skeuomorphic design touches like subtle gradients and drop shadows can give controls a more nuanced appearance. However, being too heavy-handed with it can do more harm than good to aesthetics and usability.

3 – Data Visualization

Visualizing patient data helps doctors and medical researchers gain valuable insights. Clear visualizations strip the complexity away from the data and bring the most helpful information to the forefront, allowing healthcare professionals to work more efficiently to provide fast and impactful patient care.

Instead of poring over a spreadsheet or writing database queries, patients and healthcare professionals can identify trends and outliers at a glance. Simple, straightforward data visualization also has a place in patient-facing medical devices. For example, Tandem Diabetes Care leveraged smart technology to transform their medical device UX.

4 – Interactive Chatbots

Interactive chatbots help patients access information and support with minimal friction. Providing instant answers to routine queries makes self-service easier for patients. People prefer that healthcare UI software to be interactive, and chatbots introduce a simulation of the human element. When chatbots handle monotonous and repetitive tasks, employees can focus on the work that requires human intervention.

5 – Voice Interface

Voice interfaces are becoming more useful — in your phone, at home and, now, in medical devices. Like interactive chatbots, voice interfaces provide patients and healthcare professionals with yet another way to access information quickly and conveniently.

Hands-free usability is especially valuable to patients who may not have full use of their hands. Voice interfaces give these patients the option to access application functions without help. Similarly, healthcare professionals can use voice interfaces to control technology without putting down their scalpels, needles or forceps.

6 – Customizable mHealth Apps

Mobile health apps are yet another way to increase the accessibility of information and functionality. Patients can use mHealth apps to take control of their healthcare from just about anywhere with email access. Customizable apps make the user experience more convenient, especially for patients who aren’t by a desktop or laptop all day.

mHealth apps increase patient engagement in a number of ways:

  • Sending reminders and allowing changes to appointments
  • Providing updates related to drug recommendations or other resources
  • Personalization of notifications and other features
  • Mobile tracking of health and fitness metrics
  • Offering video chat capabilities for telemedicine

Flexible customization makes mHealth apps easier to use and understand.

7 – Patient-Centric UI Design

Most of the growing healthcare UX trends share something in common. It’s all about putting patients at the center of the interface. From text size and typeface to the speed of screen scrolling, there are countless opportunities to make medical devices more pleasant and intuitive. When the device is created with the patient’s needs in mind then it’s likely that the patient will be more successful using it—less time and stress trying to figure out how to use the device, for example.

Ease of use is paramount, and not just for patients. For example, when Medtronic developed an FDA-Certified Medical device, they did so with the mindset that physicians and clinicians don’t have time to specialize in all kinds of different devices. Rather than putting the onus on healthcare providers to study the device, they created a simple touchscreen design with multi-language support.

8 – Flexible BOM Built In

Medical device OEMs have learned a lot of hard lessons during the chip shortage. When their device GUIs are limited to a single chip, production ceases when that chip becomes unavailable. This is a hard lesson that many device manufacturers have learned in recent times.

Designing flexibility into a GUI is a smart new strategy for keeping medical device production going for now and for the future. Selecting GUI design tools that support a wide range of hardware is key to that flexibility.

9 – Cloud-Based Design

Even beyond the chip shortage, the post-pandemic world creates challenges for all types of design teams and device manufacturers:

  • Dispersed teams
  • Supply chain issues
  • Shipping and labor costs
  • Disparate hardware-software stacks

All of these challenges can mean costly delays for GUI projects, so GUI teams are looking for ways to speed their development and reduce costs. Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) solutions like Altia CloudWare™ enable cloud-based design workflows to shrink or solve those problems.

Optimizing UX for Medical Devices

These nine trends are related as parts of a user-centric design philosophy. In the same way, every feature in a medical device must work together to create a cohesive user experience. Adding elements can help a product stand out and add more value for patients, but it’s also vital to implement features safely.

To see how Altia responds to medical device UI trends without increasing the risk of product failure, request your live demo.

Altia and Green Hills INTEGRITY for Automotive Cockpit Applications

Altia is proud to partner with Green Hills Software for integrated cockpit applications like this one demonstrated with #GreenHills #INTEGRITY #RTOS, #Android and #Qualcomm. Altia’s #HMI development solutions enable rich 2D and 3D graphics, functional safety and optimized graphics code for multiple display, multi-OS systems.

Check out this video tour of Altia in action with Green Hills at CES 2023!

Learn more about Altia’s graphical user interface platform for production automotive applications: https://altia.com/automotive/.

High Tech Fitness GUIs Fast Tracked for Star Trac

Star Trac wanted to offer an easy-to-use line of products with the most complete entertainment options available on the market. They wanted an information-rich embedded touch screen that offered a compelling graphical user interface that used very little CPU to maintain system availability for the integrated, software-based HD video player. And they needed to deliver this product quickly. They contacted Altia.

Altia worked with Star Trac to create a proof of concept that verified that Altia-generated graphics code was light enough to run the HMI and place a minimal CPU burden on the system – and deliver a gorgeous GUI to market on various Star Trac equipment. Star Trac’s Director of Systems, Greg Wallace, stated: ““Altia’s products and services allowed us to meet our very stringent deadlines. We had preliminary user interfaces running on hardware in hours … instead of weeks.”

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