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October 2012www.marinelink.com 45While there are countless new prod- uct, system and service launches atmajor trade fairs such as the recently concluded SMM in Hamburg, Germany, when a company with the stature of Fu- runo unveils a system, it is a show within the show. Furuno, a $1 billion business with 80% coming from the marine sector and2500 employees globally in the marine sector, introduced its new ECDIS mod- els FMD-3200 and FMD-3300, sayingthey are ready for launch during the au- tumn 2012. The FMD-3200, with a 19-in. LCD,and the FMD-3300, with a 23.1-in.LCD, are designed to deliver enhance- ments in terms of user interface as well as functionality. The new ECDIS are de- signed for newbuilds and retrofits, to fulfill ECDIS mandatory carriage that has been phasing in from July 2012. ?A big emphasis of this project was to make it (the new ECDIS models) easy to use and understand,? said Bill Haynes, Deep Sea Product Manager, Furuno. Importantly, all hardware for the system is Furuno-built, and features of the new system incorporate insights and advice from real navigators. For ex- ample, the InstantAccess Bar. Key to the new system is a streamlined chart management scheme designed toprovide easy chart management inde- pendent of the chart providers. The new ECDIS is compatible with Jeppesen Dynamic Licensing and it sup-ports the Admiralty Information Over- lay (AIO). Focus on the Man/Machine Interface The new units were created to provide the operator with quick access to thetasks and functions to be performed inthe midst of vessel operation. The new ECDIS employs intelligently arranged Graphic User Interface elements: Status Bar and InstantAccess Bar, that deliver task-based operation scheme to give the operator direct access to necessary op-erational procedure. The Status Bar at the top of the screen provides operating status, including modes of operation andpresentation. The InstantAccess Bar on the left edge of the screen provides quick access to functions available in each of the ECDIS operating modes.The contents of the InstantAccess Barchange according to the operatingmodes selected on the Status Bar. This combination of the Status Bar and In-stantAccess Bar covers virtually the en- tire operation. The new ECDIS uses advanced chart-drawing engine that de- livers instantaneous chart redraw with the seamless zooming and panning,hence making the ECDIS operationstress-free. Moreover, its operation philosophy is based upon the same logic as the con-trol scheme of a mouse that people areaccustomed to in using a PC, and all op-erations can be controlled with the useof trackball of the control unit by meansof left-clicking, right-clicking and usinga thumbwheel. www.furunousa.com TECHNICALPRODUCTSFuruno Launches New ECDIS ?A big emphasis of this project was to make it (the new ECDIS models) easy to use and understand,? Bill Haynes, Deep Sea Product Manager, Furuno. MR#10 (42-49):MR Template 10/5/2012 8:49 AM Page 45