Orion a bit looking Enterprise-like...

The image about the control panel of Orion is reminding me to the internal control equipments of the Enterprise - regardless of this being the original one, the next generation, the Voyager or one of their shuttles.

...



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist

Awesome. Finally, a launch vehicle that's up-to-date. Glass cockpits have been in use for well over two decades now.

Well, we'd sure have to start worrying if it looked like "Space Ship Orion"!

OTOH, I'm not 100% convinced about the wisdom of using touchscreens in microgravity. You may have things just floating around, so a touchscreen should at least have to be sensitive to what sort of object is touching it. What about voice input, the kind that's starting to appear in airplanes (of all noisy places)?

In any case, though, it makes a welcome change from the Shuttle. Feels like someone let fresh air in the room

Cheers
Max

Exactly. They're floating, not moving. Besides, how is that more dangerous than buttons, which can be hit by a dropped object?

Well, in space, a dropped object may go anywhere, including on the screen. And anything that floats, will eventually move. Ask any astronaut. Long ago, I was told by one, in fact.

To be a bit more serious, it's probably a good thing that interface design is catching up with modern times. My point is, what looks good on Star Trek (see also WannabeSpaceCadet's recent Star Trek topic) may not be ideal for practical application. But I'll bow to reason if anytime anyone demonstrates a concept is practical, or even superior.

Cheers
Max

Is a touchscreen sensitive to touches as such or is it sensitive to the warmth etc. of fingers?

19 to 20 years ago I used a computer equipped with a touchscreen in the company I was a employed at that time. I had a keyboard as well as the possibility to touch the screen.

That touchscreen was no LCD-screen, TFT didn't exist yet, noone was speaking about plasma-screens and the screen also wasn't flexible - so I cannot but suppose that it reacted to the warmth of human fingers.

By the way - what reacted to touches were function keys.

So it might be that not touches as such - as physical events - are reacted to but touches by particular "objects" only that must have a particular warmth.

Might that be?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

It seems more 2001/ Orion III to me.

Fitting, that.