[Elecraft] (OT) Touchscreens

[Doug Person via Elecraft]

Guy,

A very thoughtful perspective.  It is indeed a very challenging user 
interface to design.  I'm sure that there will be dozens of solutions 
that work on iOS and Android.  Building Bluetooth into a radio and 
allowing full control through it would be the gateway that needs opening.

I favor a touch enabled flat panel connected directly into the radio's 
microprocessor.  Everything I've done so far shows that the latency 
through the serial port is a usability inhibitor.  It's never going to 
feel natural until it is updating visual objects within a few 
milliseconds.  What I'm envisioning is something like 20 to 30 objects 
that are completely customizable for size, color, function and 
location.  The user could develop a particular layout and save it.  Each 
band and mode can be a different layout.

And then there is the interactive voice interface with commands like "go 
to fourteen zero seven zero mode PSK", "send CQ", "answer K0DXV" or 
"load contest configuration three".  Might be handy to be able to just 
tell you radio what to do and watch the interface change to accommodate you.

I expect that 10 years from now I'll walk into the kitchen in the 
morning and say "Mr. Coffee - Make a large regular coffee".  My coffee 
maker will say "Right away" and the beans will start grinding.  I'll 
then take my coffee into the shack and say "K5 on" and a marvelous radio 
will come to life...

73, Doug -- K0DXV

The real key is going to be the degree of customization available.

On 9/4/2015 3:25 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote:
> There will always be those that try concepts in places they have never been
> used. But touchscreens have been around for a long time and a lot is known
> about them. The all time great defining application for them is in
> restaurants for wait staff to enter your food selection.
>
> Repetitive operations using touchscreens require physical use research
> which includes designing a mounting scheme that does not produce
> physical strain under normal operation.
>
> Normal accuracy of touch point taps has to be accommodated in screen apps.
> Large tap points that appear and vanish with an appropriate logic produce
> the great workplace improvements. E.g. the wait staff screens.
>
> The stuff behind successful touchscreen apps is mind boggling, often
> involving years even now decades of incremental research and program
> changes. This touchscreen editor I'm using right now on my smartphone is
> one such.
>
> Any one of the list of must-do's ignored and the app is likely doomed.
>
> Touchscreen radio? Not wishing anyone bad luck but they've bitten off quite
> a piece of work. Radio ops are very repetitive in contests.
>
> You'll never sell me a pure touch radio for contesting. Maybe a talky with
> the form factor of my iPhone 6+ with a Bluetooth linked manual control and
> separate Bluetooth linked amp/transmitter.
>
> The obvious (to me anyway) touch interface is to use a smart phone app that
> can also run on a tablet. Most people have already bought it and will
> replace it when it breaks for dozens of unrelated needs. Don't have to
> embed that cost and development into the radio. Let me use my house wifi or
> Bluetooth to link to my K3. The K3 change is to provide the interface. An
> internal board that listens to wifi and Bluetooth. All single chip stuff
> these days.
>
> Will be interesting to see what survives of touchscreen radio when the
> latest and greatest crowd has lost interest and moved on.
>
> 73, Guy K2AV
>
> On Friday, September 4, 2015, Bill Stravinsky via Elecraft <
> elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','elecraft at mailman.qth.net');>> wrote:
>
>> Not sure why I needed to know about an Icom 7300 and am guessing it has a
>> touchscreen.  Leave the touchscreens
>> to the smart phones, IMHO.  If I had a smartphone I wouldn't have a
>> problem with its touchscreen.  I have 3 laptops and have mice for all of
>> them, can't stand touchpads either.  Radios should have knobs, buttons, and
>> switches.
>> I feel confident that Elecraft wouldn't go there.  Let Icom and whomever
>> else make a radio with a touch screen.
>> 73Bill K3WJV
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to k2av.guy at gmail.com
>
>