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This is beautiful! It's amusing to think that most of this can be replaced with a single iPad.

by amasad 9y ago

barrkel 9y ago
Can they? I don't think you'd get the same situational awareness that you can with e.g. blinking warning lights. And many of them have both measures and controls integrated into a schematic of the system, something that would be impractically small on an ipad.
flatline 9y ago
My thought was exactly the opposite. Some of them have modern computers right in the control room and still have all this gadgetry. There's just no way to reproduce that level of visual information on a small screen. Even at work I sometimes struggle with dual 32" monitors, I just need more real estate and have to constantly switch between windows and desktops. And that's for fairly mundane development tasks.
- lucaspiller 9y ago
  My impression was that the control console is probably coupled too tightly to the control system, that removing and replacing it with something modern wouldn’t be feasable or worth the effort. I find it unlikely that they need to see all those dials at once, but without a modal system to switch between data views they need to show every data point. On a modern system you could achieve the same by having views specific to each task, and an alerting system for when a data point for that task goes out of range. Here is an image from a modern Austrian steel factory run by 3 people - half of the screens on the top row are just showing CCTV images: http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/25/1498153350-699054458-1.jpg http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/25/1498153350-699054458-1.jpg
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
keithpeter 9y ago
Spatial memory works for me: I had a lab with three racks full of analogue electronics controlling my experiment and I could 'navigate' my way through various procedures very easily based on what the instrumentation was showing me. To collapse the instrumetation and the controls onto a display the size of a piece of paper there would need to be a number of different screens and then I'd have to know what was where. Wall sized multiple touch screens - now you are talking. http://gcaptain.com/worlds-first-remotely-controlled-commercial-vessel-put-to-the-test-in-copenhagen/ http://gcaptain.com/worlds-first-remotely-controlled-commerc... Sort of like that but with a system diagram instead of the sea...
lithos 9y ago
When something goes wrong in the plant, spacial memory and muscle memory are outstanding for letting a panicked person get the most important things done. Also the person that is acting as the leader gets nice information based on where people are moving their arms, sound with built in clicks/bells, and similar. Personally I think a computer screen lowers intelligence temporarily as well. Or at least activates the UI grazing habit of looking for a control that is close to what you want and playing with it without thinking about it. Especially if you're not careful. ____________ Though lots of really big screens, and UI/control screens that have limited options works nicely.

This is beautiful! It's amusing to think that most of this can be replaced with a single iPad.

by amasad 9y ago

This is beautiful! It's amusing to think that most of this can be replaced with a single iPad.

Can they? I don't think you'd get the same situational awareness that you can with e.g. blinking warning lights. And many of them have both measures and controls integrated into a schematic of the system, something that would be impractically small on an ipad.

flatline 9y ago

My thought was exactly the opposite. Some of them have modern computers right in the control room and still have all this gadgetry. There's just no way to reproduce that level of visual information on a small screen. Even at work I sometimes struggle with dual 32" monitors, I just need more real estate and have to constantly switch between windows and desktops. And that's for fairly mundane development tasks.

lucaspiller 9y ago
My impression was that the control console is probably coupled too tightly to the control system, that removing and replacing it with something modern wouldn’t be feasable or worth the effort. I find it unlikely that they need to see all those dials at once, but without a modal system to switch between data views they need to show every data point. On a modern system you could achieve the same by having views specific to each task, and an alerting system for when a data point for that task goes out of range. Here is an image from a modern Austrian steel factory run by 3 people - half of the screens on the top row are just showing CCTV images: http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/25/1498153350-699054458-1.jpg http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/25/1498153350-699054458-1.jpg
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

keithpeter 9y ago

Spatial memory works for me: I had a lab with three racks full of analogue electronics controlling my experiment and I could 'navigate' my way through various procedures very easily based on what the instrumentation was showing me. To collapse the instrumetation and the controls onto a display the size of a piece of paper there would need to be a number of different screens and then I'd have to know what was where. Wall sized multiple touch screens - now you are talking. http://gcaptain.com/worlds-first-remotely-controlled-commercial-vessel-put-to-the-test-in-copenhagen/ http://gcaptain.com/worlds-first-remotely-controlled-commerc... Sort of like that but with a system diagram instead of the sea...

lithos 9y ago

When something goes wrong in the plant, spacial memory and muscle memory are outstanding for letting a panicked person get the most important things done. Also the person that is acting as the leader gets nice information based on where people are moving their arms, sound with built in clicks/bells, and similar. Personally I think a computer screen lowers intelligence temporarily as well. Or at least activates the UI grazing habit of looking for a control that is close to what you want and playing with it without thinking about it. Especially if you're not careful. ____________ Though lots of really big screens, and UI/control screens that have limited options works nicely.