starship-design: Computer displays et al.

["Peter / Sci" <scifox@asylum30.freeserve.co.uk>]

I've recently reinstalled my computer with Win2k, following the rather
extending death-throws of '98.  Decided to reduce the system load a little
this time by opting for a combined messenger, Trillian.  Today while
downloading a few skins for said program, my mind wandered onto the simple
question of ergonomics.
Visually, the base Trillian skin is resonable enough, though a little
difficult to read, I found.
I'm not sugesting the use of interface skins, even though it could make
tasks easier for individuals, it would make other task more difficult if,
say, you forgot your own skin password and had to figure out which Smiley
repressents the command to dump the engine-core before it blows.

As I see it, ergonomics is also about more than ease-of-use, when regarding
control systems, it must also be intuitive (red=bad/danger, sorta stuff).
Anyway, I have a few ideas on paper, and hopefully get them uploaded when I
have some webspace again.

Either case, I would count
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/skins/DreamScreen.jpg to be a good and clear
example, while http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/skins/s3-screenshot.gif is
not, due to it's difficult to read font and background/text colour choices.

For the most part though, the argument is academic at this time, as the
entire computer system, in my mind, should be redesigned from scratch. Home
PCs carry with them decades of obsolete design-traits, to make them
backwards-compatible primarily. The ship-board computers have very little
family to be compatible with, so mark a great point at which to start over
from scratch.  Such recent developments such as 1000 electron memorys would
be perfect be for use amid a ships various internal and external sensors,
providing a sort of integral black-box (electron memory, does not rely of
capacitors on chips, and is entirly stable).
In a similer sence we can rule out certain future technologys for use in
ships, as quantum-computers need only  asingle cosmic-ray to spoil them, and
a likewise small charge to spoil a high-density computer chip.  Some things
just seem too delicate to use.

I would like to suggest though, as it is frequently pointed out a lot of
computer-power could be used for navigation, that a seperate, or remote,
computer be used entirely for navigation.  Designed and intended for
plotting of courses (and their execution too?), it would most likely be
vastly supperior in operation to a large multi-purpose machine.
Even today, a high-spec machine running an emulator, can be beaten by the
old WW2 code-crackers, because it has been designed and built for that
purpose alone.  Utterly dedicated.
I envision a unit that plugged into the ships network, but it unlike the
rest of it.  It only uses the network for sending and receiving of the raw
data, and none of it's processing.  Able to use it's inbuilt navigation
engine, to desern the best aproach-paths, orbits, exit-path, headings, etc..
and feed them to the navigational displays for confirmation/use.

Such output I feel would be a good use for the relativly primative
holographics we have available to us.  I imagine 3D navigation might be
rather tricky without it to enable us to visualise it.
The one that springs to mind was shown on a BBC program, "Tommorows World"
some years ago, and I seem unable to find a more up to date source of
information on it.  It was being concidered as an alternate display for
air-traffic-control.
It concisted of a tube with a rapidly spinning single-helix within it, a
single turn of which took up the entire height of the small chamber.  It was
spun, and since the helix took up only one turn of height, a laser,
projected from below witht he right timing, was able to set the point of
it's height by whatever part of the helix was passing above it at the time,
thus enabling graphics to be displayed as a truely 3D image.
A larger, and preferably colour, vesion of this I think be the perfect
navigational display.

For the momment, that's all I have to say, but I do ask something also.
A long time ago, an aquaintence mentioned a theoretical drive-system he
called a Spin-Drive, that was supposed to use so quirk of quantum to enfold
a craft in a mobile pocket-universe.  Was he merely quoting some sci-fi
story, or is there some backing for this?  I have been unable to find
further information.

My best wishes,

Sci