TOUCH PANELS AND FLAT PANEL DISPLAYS FOR SPACE STATION SYSTEM MONITORING

THE SPACE STATION OF THE FUTURE WILL BE OF SUCH ENORMOUS COMPLEXITY THAT IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE ENTIRE SYSTEM. BECAUSE OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THIS SYSTEM, AN ALL ENCOMPASSING STATUS DISPLAY WOULD BE OVERWHELMING UNLESS PRESENTED IN A HIERARCHIAL MANNER. WE PROPOSE A WORKSTATION BASED ON A TOUCH PANEL AND A FLAT PANEL DISPLAY; THE TOUCH PANEL PROVIDES THE OPERATOR WITH A VERY EFFICIENT MECHANISM TO PERFORM HIERARCHIAL MENU SELECTIONS; THE FLAT PANEL PROVIDES HIGH CONTRAST GRAPHICS AND TEXT IN A RELIABLE, COMPACT AND LIGHTWEIGHT PACKAGE. THE PROPOSED WORKSTATION WILL PROVIDE THE USER WITH THOSE COMMAND CHOICES AND STATUS READOUTS (REPRESENTED BY BOTH TEXT AND ICONS) THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE DISPLAYED SUBSYSTEM, THUS REDUCING CONFUSION. THE OPERATOR CAN MAKE ASELECTION AND MONITOR SYSTEM STATUS THROUGH THE SAME MECHANISM BY MERELY POINTING TO THE DESIRED FUNCTION OR ACTION. THE PROPOSED PHASE I EFFORT WILL DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE WORKSTATION AND DEMONSTRATE ITS USEFULNESS IN THE SPACE STATION BY SIMULATING A PORTION OF THE MONITORING SYSTEM.