Live data from Hacker News

US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

theverge.com

231–240 of 458 posts

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#231
post #192
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was rebutting the nonsense you wrote about most FPS players using controllers.

[Citation needed] Call of duty and rainbow six and countless other FPS games sell big on console. Google says games sales are 35% PC. Which again has nothing to do what I said. Stop turning this into a petty flames war.

I have provided one citation from a Forbes article on this thread already, but it really depends on which measurements you pick.

If by console player numbers vs PC player numbers, we are talking about the number of people who have ever played an FPS shooter on either platform, console is almost certainly smaller, purely due to the ubiquity of the PC.

Most regular game players of either preference have played on both at one point or another. But the sheer quantity of people alive who have played the shareware first levels of FPS shooters on PCs at one point or another, and who if they have ever used a console, will have played pastel coloured puzzle games, or used health gadgets with plastic exercise equipment straight out of Brave New World, tips the scale massively.

That being said, I would not be particularly surprised if the number of people currently playing an FPS shooter on either platform, as of this instant, was greater for console.

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#232
Same thing happened in Ford Flex (perhaps other cars as well, I just have a ford flex). The touchscreen was replaced with mechanical dials and buttons in newer models for climate control. I understand, I find the touchscreen hard to use while concentrating on the road.

That said, touchscreens definitely have their place for getting information about the system / monitoring / managing data.

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#233

Wait. Let me get this straight. Touchscreens, which are ideal for representing multiple user unterfaces in an intuitive way, but requiring constant visual contact are being replaced by a physical user interface that can be used by both touch, and memory? Why was touchscreen ever even a consideration for controls you're not looking at? Touchscreen is great for phones. It is awful for keyboards (see macbook pro). And i…

"Touchscreens, which are ideal for representing multiple user unterface (sic) in an intuitive way"

Given the current state of such, no. Even the sheer disparity between desktop and mobile versions makes this readily apparent.

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#235
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Citation needed] Call of duty and rainbow six and countless other FPS games sell big on console. Google says games sales are 35% PC. Which again has nothing to do what I said. Stop turning this into a petty flames war.

I have provided one citation from a Forbes article on this thread already, but it really depends on which measurements you pick. If by console player numbers vs PC player numbers, we are talking about the number of people who have ever played an FPS shooter on either platform, console is almost certainly smaller, purely due to the ubiquity of the PC. Most regular game players of either preference have played on both…

Cool. I'm sure anyone who's played FPS serious knows keyboards are superior. I played Rainbow Six at the top tier on both platforms and I remember the e-sports still uses controllers for FPS games. It's quite amazing what they can do with it given the limitations of joysticks.

Drones are being piloted with Joysticks as are underwater submarines and other technology. Use-cases where high percussion mouse movements and the millisecond differences between mechanical keyboards and a gamepad button are of no value as they are mechanically limited machines - not simulations.

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#236

> and that many were fatigued, with an average of 4.9 hours of sleep between the 14 crew members present. I suspect this played more of a role than any of the controls or procedures did. I had a friend in the Navy and he once explained the shifts he did to me and how utterly insane they were. I suspect leadership doesn't want to (or cant) fix the root cause (fatigue) and is happy to spend tax dollars to replace the s…

[deleted]

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday I was driving back from Scotland to England, doing 70ish, when we ran into a really heavy thunderstorm. Went from good visibility to almost zero in seconds, and the only thing I could properly see was the crash barrier alongside the lane. I found myself desperately trying to see where the road was, simultaneously trying not to get rear-ended as I slowed up, switch on the rear fog lamps and hazards, max wipe…

Honest question: Why don't modern cars yet monitor humidity in and outside the car and make the correct decisions to keep your windows clear? Why are we focusing on self-driving cars while our cars are too dumb to do this much on their own?

Some cars do that automatically - in which case there are tons of complaints about the car turning on the climate control automatically. This is something where you just can't win...

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#239

Wait. Let me get this straight. Touchscreens, which are ideal for representing multiple user unterfaces in an intuitive way, but requiring constant visual contact are being replaced by a physical user interface that can be used by both touch, and memory? Why was touchscreen ever even a consideration for controls you're not looking at? Touchscreen is great for phones. It is awful for keyboards (see macbook pro). And i…

Well, it worked on Star Trek. Then again, that was addressed in a Voyager episode when Tom Paris designs the helm in their new runabout with old fashioned buttons and switches because he wanted to actually feel the controls much to Tuvok's dismay. Though, on a serious note, I work in industrial automation and user interfaces, aka HMI's have been touch oriented for quite some time. It was and still is common to see gr…

> Well, it worked on Star Trek.

IIRC the official explanation from the makers of Star Trek is that the displays look like simple touch screens, but they are actually overlaid with structured force fields, so for the users it feels like a physical button press.

Re: US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

#240

Wait. Let me get this straight. Touchscreens, which are ideal for representing multiple user unterfaces in an intuitive way, but requiring constant visual contact are being replaced by a physical user interface that can be used by both touch, and memory? Why was touchscreen ever even a consideration for controls you're not looking at? Touchscreen is great for phones. It is awful for keyboards (see macbook pro). And i…

Just about every Human Computer Interaction focused computer scientist I know is adamant that touch screens are inappropriate and vastly sub-optimal for many of the purposes it is currently employed in.

I don't think it's that researchers think it's good. I think that executives and programmers do.

Post reply on HN