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100% touchscreen nuke control room - improvement or abomination?

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SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: djacobow on August 17, 2021, 04:12:50 pm ---
--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on August 17, 2021, 04:51:02 am ---Aren't touchscreens common in modern aircraft? The important controls still use physical knobs and switches, however.

--- End quote ---

I think the fancier new panels in a lot of GA aircraft have touch-screen capabilities, but there are usually other controls (buttons, knobs) that access all the main functions. And the very most important of those are single-modal.

On airliners, I don't think there's much touch screens, but I could be wrong. For example, FMSs, which would be a natural place for a touch screen, almost universally have keypads. So do radio controls, etc.

--- End quote ---

I don't think so either. And anyway there are always physicak knobs and buttons for everything. There are touchscreens for non-critical control of the cabin though. (Lighting, media stuff, etc.)

The real exception I've seen so far in an "aircraft", if you can call it that, is in SpaceX's Crew Dragon. Oh, and astronauts have to operate that with gloves.
https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-and-spacex-are-about-to-fly-into-space-with-a-touchscreen-demo-2-crew-dragon/

Red Squirrel:
I can't see this being intuitive at all.  I hate that cars seem to be going towards touch for everything too.

When pressing a button I want to physically touch something, and feel a click or clunk and know that the action went through.  Touch screens just don't provide that feedback.   And what if you need to put your hand on a lever or button while looking at another screen then activate it.  You can't really do that with a touch screen.   I don't know enough about day to day operations at a nuclear control room so maybe it's ok but I feel a lot of people working at one would not like this.

Touch is also slow, since software has to process everything, while a physical button is physically activating a circuit.  Imagine trying to sync two turbines together on the grid using touch.  :o  There is going to be latency is displaying the synchroscope output, and then latency in actually processing when you "press" the button. It's also hard to kind of have your finger ready without accidentally touching it.

I bet the first time someone accidentally snaps a 2 foot thick turbine shaft they're going to rethink all of this.

I never thought of this but can bugs activate touch screens?  Going to be a bad day if ever a large bee or other bug gets in that room and lands on the screen lol.

AntiProtonBoy:

--- Quote from: Red Squirrel on August 18, 2021, 03:02:43 am ---I hate that cars seem to be going towards touch for everything too.

--- End quote ---
Yeah not a fan either. Tactile interfaces are much safer to interact with, whereas with touch screens you have to shift focus, and they are very easy to screw up by pressing the wrong thing.

NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: Red Squirrel on August 18, 2021, 03:02:43 am ---Touch is also slow, since software has to process everything, while a physical button is physically activating a circuit.  Imagine trying to sync two turbines together on the grid using touch.  :o  There is going to be latency is displaying the synchroscope output, and then latency in actually processing when you "press" the button. It's also hard to kind of have your finger ready without accidentally touching it.

I bet the first time someone accidentally snaps a 2 foot thick turbine shaft they're going to rethink all of this.

--- End quote ---
Any reason that wouldn't be automated? At the least, it would be trivial to reject attempts to connect out of sync.

cgroen:
At least touchscreens works for some....

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