Page 23: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2014)

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ECDIS-Certifi ed Comfort

These carefully defi ned intensities demonstrate that the ECDIS standard was created, fi rst and foremost, to have a convenient means of adjusting these in- tensities on-the-fl y. When facing a large, bright screen in near-darkness, fi nding the precise location of the controls on an

LCD panel can problematic. To address this issue, the controls may be backlit, and equipped with a proximity sensor.

With a simple wave of the hand in the controls’ general area the machine inter- face will light up, allowing the operator to easily and quickly re-set the bright- ness level to his or her desired intensity.

Additionally, for an ECDIS station, the controls should offer presets that auto- matically adjust the display to one of the three type-approved, color-calibrated intensities stipulated by the ECDIS stan- dard.

Making Things Easier

Because this is a bridge environment, typical users who depend on these dis- plays will not be trained in trouble- shooting system failures; additionally, a display failure would be, in terms of the system it is serving, catastrophic. To address situations where the display or computing system fails, a BIOS level diagnostic utility may be provided. By integrating the diagnostics at the BIOS level, the display will be able to generate a quick rundown of subsystem integrity for any user who requires it, at any time.

Imagine, for instance, a navigator who arrives on the bridge to lay out a chart.

This navigator turns on the ECDIS sta- tion, but for some reason the display fails to light up as it should. Clearly there is something wrong, but faced with a dark screen and a fully integrated, closed ECDIS station, there is no way to discover what the problem might be without opening up the cabinet and dig- ging through the internals. However, by pressing an Information button located among the monitor controls, the display terminal’s on screen display (OSD) im- mediately lights up with a quick run- down of the main computer subsystems:

CPU, motherboard chipset, RAM status,

VGA output status, motherboard voltage, temperature, storage media notifi cations and PSU status. Our average user—ut- terly untrained in computing system or networking administration—is made im- mediately aware of what the problem is, and whether or not it can be fi xed else- where. Issues such as memory or PSU integrity might be able to be solved with a simple component substitution or re- wiring. Issues with the motherboard,

CPU, or other hardwired components clearly indicate that the problem can only be fi xed once the ship reaches port.

However, armed with this information, the captain may now call ahead, fi le a re- port and have a service technician ready and waiting with a replacement product or with the necessary components for bringing the system back on line.

No Failure Will Get By Unnoticed

Clearly there remains room for im- provement in display technology. By addressing the needs of specifi c indus- tries and specifi c embedded computing requirements it is possible to deliver sig- nifi cant improvements that both the end- user as well as system integrators, de- signers, and technicians will appreciate.

Mark Liu, product manager at Moxa.

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