eike hein

Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) is the infotainment system in Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. I work on MBUX as Chief Architect at MBition, the Mercedes-Benz software hub. Our architecture team is responsible for operating system and platform software in use on multiple edge compute devices in the car, driving a multitude of screens, cameras and other I/O periphery. Together this distributed system implements many key driving, connectivity and entertainment functions.

• Find MBition on the web
• Check out MBUX in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class
• See material for my conference talk "Automotive HMI: Trends & Qt 6" (2021, German)

The 2025 Mercedes-Benz CLA is the first Mercedes car built on an all-new electric-first vehicle platform, and the first to adopt the larger new MB.OS software system. For MBition, this was the debut of the second generation of our in-house infotainment product. With greatly expanded scope and functionality, it was set on a path to become the central computing unit of the car. I was MBition's Chief Architect for the entire duration of this product cycle.

• Check out the press kit
• Read about MB.OS

While I was able to make contributions to other Mercedes-Benz cars before it, the 2023 E-Class is what I truly consider my first car. The infotainment system of the "W214" is the first I had fundamental input into early on, from hardware selection and bring-up, to modernizing the graphics and rendering architecture, and ultimately helping to shape many other aspects. It is the first Mercedes-Benz model with a system developed in-house at Mercedes-Benz, by our team at MBition, built on the company's MBiENT platform. I eventually closed out this product cycle as MBition's Chief Architect, balancing start of production with work on several next-generation products.

• Digital World Premiere: Information, Video & more

Plasma is a set of high-quality device user interfaces for PCs and mobile/embedded, based on a unified technology stack. I've implemented many of the primary elements of Plasma's desktop user interface as lead developer, as well as underlying backends and libraries used in every Plasma edition.

• Find Plasma Desktop on the web
• Find Plasma Mobile on the web
• Watch a conference talk on Input Methods in Plasma (2017)
  

KDE is an international technology community developing device user interfaces, apps, frameworks, dev tools and project infrastructure. I've contributed to KDE's projects in various roles since 2005. At KDE I've been a lead developer, software architect, project maintainer, UI designer, sys admin, student mentor, writer and more.

• Find KDE on the web
• Read my KDE blog
• Check out the 2013 Akademy awards

KDE e.V. is a non-profit association supporting the KDE community in organizational, legal and financial matters. It funds infrastructure, events and travel. I've been a member since 2007, and Vice President and treasurer on the board of directors since 2017.

• Find KDE e.V. on the web
• Read the most recent KDE e.V. Community Report

As CTO of one of Valve's contractors on the Steam Deck, I was responsible for organizing our contributions to its Desktop mode feature, based on KDE Plasma. PoC code I wrote for app lifecycle management on the Deck lead to a new standardized mechanism for app launching and resource management on the Linux desktop. I also wrote some of the initial code for Plasma's resource monitoring framework and the System Monitor app on this project.

• Check out the product page for the Steam Deck
• Read the systemd spec for desktop app integration
• Read an article introducing resource management in KDE Plasma
• Read an article introducing Plasma System Monitor

My little IoT/embedded skill-sharpener: A bookshelf with individually con­trol­lable LED backlighting, by way of an embedded touchscreen, a phone companion app and a Philips Hue integration. In addition to assembling the hardware bits this hobby project involved building a responsive and network-cabable embedded/Android/PC touch GUI, a custom SPI-based LED paint engine, adding a HTTP REST API, programming an MCU to perform PWM display backlight control and more.

• Browse the source code
• Read the documentation
• Read an article on Hackaday

An AI-powered automatic E-Ink newspaper for my living room wall. The ESP32-based embedded frontend is optimized for maximum battery life and spends most of the day in deep sleep. In the mornings, it wakes and updates with the latest news from a personal selection of sources, weather forecast included. All onboard software is written in Rust, including a custom driver for the ITE IT8951 EPD controller. The Python-powered backend uses OpenAI's ChatGPT API to trim scraped articles to size, and uses a pipeline of LuaTeX, Ghostscript and post-processing to render the NYTimes-inspired layout. Randomly placed coffee stain for effect. ☕

• Build log photo album
• Read an article on Hackaday
• Read an article on Hackster

Kirogi is a ground control application for drones, with a graphical user interface that blends a touchscreen game controller with a smartphone camera app. It supports a variety of off-the-shelf consumer gear and DIY drone models. Available for Android smartphones and PCs. Kirogi is named after the Korean word for wild geese, who rank among the fastest flyers in the animal kingdom.

• Find Kirogi on the web
• Watch a conference talk on Kirogi

Qt is a software framework for building applications and user interfaces. I contribute to Qt's code and, through KDE e.V., have helped to run the Qt World Summit conference. I am involved in regulating Qt's open source licensing via KDE's stake in the Free Qt Foundation, which has the mission of securing the availability of the Qt toolkit for the development of open source software.

• Find Qt on the web
• Find the Free Qt Foundation on the web

Wayland is a family of display server protocols used to implement windowing systems and address a variety of graphics composition use cases. I have contributed to standardized Wayland protocols and, alongside others, for a time represented the KDE community in the governance of the Wayland project. I've worked on implementing Wayland in both Plasma and MBUX.

• Find Wayland on the web
• Read about wayland-protocols governance
• Read the wayland-protocols project member list

The Transitional Justice Working Group is a Seoul-based NGO focusing on transitional justice mechanisms in the world’s most repressive regimes. It has done substantial work on geographically mapping human rights abuses in North Korea based on hundreds of interviews, using open source technology. I support the working group as an IT/technology advisor.

• Find the TJWG on the web
• Read a report by the TJWG
• Read an article on the Mapping Project

The small but resourceful maker's corner in my Berlin home is densely equipped for the small electronics projects (e.g. drones, walkers and other robotics, along with various other little embedded devices) I do now and then, as well as post-processing of 3D prints and other assorted tinkering.

• Photo album of an older iteration

I added a 3D printer to my home lab some time ago, to prototype sheet metal parts for a robotics DIY project. These days I often use it to print little household hacks or decorative items I put together in FreeCAD and Fusion. I regularly upload some of my models on Prusa's Printables, link below.

• Look at my model catalog on Printables.com

Yakuake is a hotkey-activated, drop-down terminal emulator for Linux desktops, in the vein of the command console in the video game Quake. I was the maintainer and lead developer of Yakuake for many years.

• Find Yakuake on the web

Konversation is a classic PC group chat app for the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol. I was the maintainer and lead developer of Konversation for many years.

• Find Konversation on the web