touch screens! a wonderful control idea ....NOT!
once upon a time there was an ocean going tug boat.
bloody huge thing.
engineers thought we'll equip it with the latest in control systems.
we'll use touch screens and virtual buttons.
they built the new wonder tug using all the best that modern control systems could offer.
come the day the paint had dried and the sea trials were underway.
touch on the screen and turn left.
touch on the screen and full power.
touch o the screen and we come to a stop.
touch on the screen and we power up again.
touch and turn left.
the sea trials went on for a few hours and touch what you liked and the ship obeyed. all went sparklingly well for the hours of the sea trials.
heading back to port and all were patting themselves on the back.
wonderful stuff.
heading back to the jetty and about to manoeuvre for the final tie up against the wharf and the captain got a fit of the sneezes.
little bits of spit went everywhere on the touch screen.
the computer proceeded to interpret every little bit of spit as a key press.
the ocean going tugboat came faithfully to full power turned as instructed and totally demolished the end of the jetty.
captains last words.
a sweep of the hand past all the modern high tech interfaces and the instruction "....fcuk it all off. its a fail"
I kid you not. this really did occur.
who's for the new airbus interface then?????