Touchscreen versus control knobs...

[HighBypass 2,339]

  

16 hours ago, birdguy said:

Of course the new touchscreen digital world of technology is so much better than the dash knobs you could just reach down and twist to do the same job without taking your eyes off the road..

THIS!  Noel's post in another thread prompted me to post this up for a discussion non-covid or MSFS. 😎

I totally agree Noel, with the shovelfuls of sarcasm in that sentence. You become familiar with the control layout in your car, muscle memory takes you to the control you need to alter. What's more, because it's a physical contact your hand doesn't get jarred off the control by bumps in the road which is what happens to a fingertip on a smooth touchscreen... all too often on the potholed highways of the UK 😄

There's a reason some switches in aircraft instrument panels and on HOTAS controls have different shapes and feel different so the human can keep their eyes on the sky and if they need to look inside at an MFD they don't need to faff about trying to press awkward buttons or a touchscreen in turbulence or when pulling G's - the HOTAS controls switch screen modes etc. up to a point. Not all aircraft systems or functions can be accessed in such a manner.

One might argue that some car companies try and place all the controls on the steering wheel which is fine up to a point.. You still have to look at a screen to see how far you've increased the temperature up or down, and see the name you're trying to select for that hands free phone call (should you in fact be making that call??  😜)

Assume that for example a person is just purely driving their car and not even listening to the radio, or texting... They wish to alter the car's ventilation or cabin temperature. Old school heater controls were either rotary knobs, usually with a raised handle, or on sliders. One became familiar where that handle or slider was to give the setting you required just by its position.

IMHO this muscle memory and tactile feel idea is far safer than the touchscreen of today... until such time as vehicles become driverless and the touchscreen is the in-car entertainment system...

I suppose this is a long-winded post about me wishing I had an old American muscle car... 😢😎  Thanks for your time.

[Murmur 3,941]

Couldn't agree more!

[Chock 17,769]

One of the issue I have with the implementation of more modern technology in aeroplanes (and some cars) is that it is easier to quickly assimilate information from a traditional dial rather than a digital readout. I'll give you an example of where this is something I have done regularly in a aeroplanes...

When you do a winch launch in a glider, you are quite busy maintaining a very steep pitch up as well as frequently having to lay off against a crosswind so that when you release the winch cable, it comes down on the airfield instead of being over an adjacent field. Since many gliders do not have an artificial horizon, it is common in these instances to judge the pitch angle and the layoff by doing a couple of things, one is to continuously glance left and right and see where the wingtips are on the horizon to determine the bank angle, and the other is to keep hauling back on the stick until you have the correct airspeed and then ease off on the stick to maintain that speed.

With a traditional airspeed dial, you can quickly determine the speed by knowing at which 'clock position' the needle will sit when you are on the right number. So you can in fact see this with peripheral vision; there is no need to look directly at the dial in order to read and interpret a number and then assimilate that, instead you just keep noting and controlling the airspeed needle's clock position by feeding in more, or less up elevator. You could not do this so easily with a digital readout; you'd actually have to look at a numbers.

In VFR conditions, it is obviously a lot safer to not have to have your head down on the panel so much, and with traditional dials, a six pack scan can be done very quickly indeed. Of course by the same token a HUD could change this, but we are still quite a way off from most GA aeroplanes having HUDs.

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Chock

[n4gix 4,947]

Speaking of "muscle memory," all my driving life my car's gear shift lever was located on the right side of the steering wheel, being attached to the column...

...so now I find myself invariably reaching there for the gearshift lever, only to grab the wiper control lever instead.

You'd think that having owned my current car for almost three years would have broken me of that habit by now! 🔤

NB: where are the color emoticons? who chose these stupid monochrome silly icons?

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

10 minutes ago, n4gix said:

Speaking of "muscle memory," all my driving life my car's gear shift lever was located on the right side of the steering wheel, being attached to the column...

...so now I find myself invariably reaching there for the gearshift lever, only to grab the wiper control lever instead.

You'd think that having owned my current car for almost three years would have broken me of that habit by now! 🔤

NB: where are the color emoticons? who chose these stupid monochrome silly icons?

For the last 10 years my cars have been automatics but every so often I find my hand reaching for first gear.

Sorry to go off topic but he started it. 🙂

[Jazz 1,046]

I'm with you fella. I never thought I would see the day when I would publicly state "Give me a good old fashioned knob, any day"

You can keep your touch screens, it's a switch that turns me on.

😉

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

3 minutes ago, Jazz said:

I'm with you fella. I never thought I would see the day when I would publicly state "Give me a good old fashioned knob, any day"

You can keep your touch screens, it's a switch that turns me on.

😉

Oh you're treading on thin ice there you naughty boy. 😄

[Jazz 1,046]

13 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

Oh you're treading on thin ice there you naughty boy. 😄

😁

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Come on, tactile screens will soon be as passé as the CD is today. Transition technology. Voice tech is the way to go.

Hey Siri put my blinker to the left. What ? it is not functioning ? So open the darn window that I put my arm outside to signal my turn.
 

[Chock 17,769]

3 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

Come on, tactile screens will soon be as passé as the CD is today. Transition technology. Voice tech is the way to go.

Hmm, cockpit voice control, I can see it now...

Pilot chats to co-pilot en-route: 'Yeah I got called in on my day off to do this flight, I'd only just got home and put my gear down'.

Aircraft computer: 'Acknowledged, putting gear down.'

Landing gear promptly disappears in the Mach .82 slipstream.

Co-pilot: 'Oh no, we're in a right flap now.'

Aircraft computer: 'Acknowledged, lowering inner right flap, now.'

Pilot: 'Computer! Stop it at once!'

Aircraft computer: 'Acknowledged, stopping at once, spoilers deployed, engines 1 and 2 reverse thrust deployed, RTO braking applied.'

Sound of wing falling off, CVR recording ends... 🤣

Edited May 24, 2020 by Chock