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US Navy will replace touchscreen with mechanical controls on its destroyers

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

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of the Surface Dial. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-dial/925r551sktgn Being able to set the dial on the screen and just turn it is a really good-feeling workflow, though likely not for something as mission-critical as the article is describing.

What I had in mind would cost closer to $0.99 than $99.00, though. (Well, OK, $9.99.) The Surface Dial was a relatively complex Bluetooth device; it didn't work through the touchscreen itself, except to the extent that the touchscreen somehow knew that a Surface Dial was resting on it.

According to the spec it uses the touchscreen, or at least some touchscreens:

>On-screen detection: Touch digitizer reports the onscreen location through a capacitive pattern (Studio only)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-dial/925r551sktgn?...

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

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the current solution doesn't work. Because trying to perfect those settings manually while driving in near zero visibility is scary and dangerous. And nobody even knows the correct settings to use! There are YouTube videos testing whether cold or warm air is the fastest way to defrost and/or defog your window, because nobody knows or remembers. I honestly don't remember and my solution is "try both for…

it's really not that complicated, you just have to understand why condensation is happening in the first place. it's always because the glass is colder than the moist air it is touching. there are two strategies to deal with this: either blow air with very low relative humidity over the glass, or fix the temperature differential itself. if you're using the "blow dry air" strategy, you always want to turn on AC and at…

>it's really not that complicated

After reading this I am still not sure which one to use. They seem to both work.

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

#263
post #206

This looks like a great step in the right direction and I hope the manufacturer of my coffee machine is following suit.

hmm, I like the coffee machine at the office to have touch screen. They have literally 30 types of coffees there, I prefer quick searching and selecting my stuff.

+ with touchscreen you can bookmark your specific drink with the right amount of sugar and milk and then get it every time at the touch of a button.

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

#264

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 unterfaces I am no expert on this, but from talking to people in the aviation industry I noticed slow a trend away from the cockpit-with-2,000 controls and towards using computer screens which switch between display multiple things. Or rather, there still are 2,000 controls, but thanks to the computer-screens, the number hasn't blown up to 200,000. So my…

I’m no where an expert and don’t know anything but I gave it a bit of thought. It seems to me that there are two types of vehicles or two types of operations. Instrumental and visual. So if a system is operated in instrumental mode, like instrumental flight, when all the information necessary is available in the screen in front of you, it seems to me that it would be more efficient to make interactive and turn the screen into touch screen. You’re only looking at the screen after all. But when you operate something in visual mode, when you have to monitor surroundings, the controls should be knobs and buttons, ones that you know from your muscle memory and can operate without looking.

For planes that means that controls required during normal flight can be touch controls. After all on Concord and TU-144 pilots didn’t even have visual. However during departure and landing, pilots need physics buttons and switches as it is visual flight.

Another conclusion is that fighter jets can’t have any touch controls, they are supposed to be in visual all the time.

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

#265
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Touchscreens, which are ideal for representing multiple user unterfaces I am no expert on this, but from talking to people in the aviation industry I noticed slow a trend away from the cockpit-with-2,000 controls and towards using computer screens which switch between display multiple things. Or rather, there still are 2,000 controls, but thanks to the computer-screens, the number hasn't blown up to 200,000. So my…

I’m no where an expert and don’t know anything but I gave it a bit of thought. It seems to me that there are two types of vehicles or two types of operations. Instrumental and visual. So if a system is operated in instrumental mode, like instrumental flight, when all the information necessary is available in the screen in front of you, it seems to me that it would be more efficient to make interactive and turn the sc…

Scene from a movie that comes to mind is the one from District 9, when they are starting the spaceship in the end. He’s totally focused on the screen, everything is happening on the screen so it totally makes sense to be a touch screen. Same goes for Star Trek, I suppose the operators don’t actually have visual on that big screen it’s just for comfort and reference.

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

#266
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I had in mind would cost closer to $0.99 than $99.00, though. (Well, OK, $9.99.) The Surface Dial was a relatively complex Bluetooth device; it didn't work through the touchscreen itself, except to the extent that the touchscreen somehow knew that a Surface Dial was resting on it.

According to the spec it uses the touchscreen, or at least some touchscreens: >On-screen detection: Touch digitizer reports the onscreen location through a capacitive pattern (Studio only) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-dial/925r551sktgn?...

Right, to sense location, not rotation. Rotation goes through Bluetooth, as with any number of existing knob controllers.

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

#267
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered if Californians know what turn signals are.

It is by far the worst state (or province) I've lived in for lack of turn signal usage. I want to get a bumper sticker that says, "Your Turn Signal is Broken".

How about a bumper sticker that says, "I slow down for stop signs".

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

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In cases like this I love the radar cruise control in modern cars it very accurately shows what's ahead even when you can't see anything. Agree with your conclusion some of the latest luxury cars have touch screens and the UX is awful.

My radar cruise control, on a Mercedes, fails with heavy rainfall. Warns you to switch to visual control.

Eyesight on my Subaru would fail as well. Manual basically says “if you can’t see, that thing can’t see as well”. It uses two cameras after all as well.

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

#269
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I detest touchscreens for most car functions. Specifically AC, with old fashioned knobs I have full control over AC without taking my eyes off the road, but nowadays everyone wants to put it on their infotainment system, hidden beneath 4 other buttons.

I have knobs on the climate control on my car, but I still need to look at the screen. The problem is the knobs have no stops so I still need to look down to figure out what they're set to after they update the electronic display. On my old vehicle I knew the whole way to the left was fan blowing on feet, whole way to the right was defroster, and the 2 or 3 clicks in between were different settings of those extremes.…

My method is to turn the knob back to when it stops moving and then it is now in a known state and I know how many clicks each setting is away.

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

#270

> 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…

In many safety critical industries you have strictly enforced fatigue management regulations. It seems shocking to me that a long distance truck driver is more strictly regulated then a person piloting a warship.
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