This chapter will give you a brief
introduction to the evolution of
electronic chart display systems it will
help you understand what X is the
present state as effective and some
guesses about the future of activist
presenting navigational chart
information on radar displays and/or on
special navigational displays is not a
new idea in the seventies several
manufacturers offered a system with
possibilities for presenting limited
navigational chart information
superimposed on the radar display or on
a separate display due to technical
limitations and high prices even the
most sophisticated of these early
systems were only delivered in small
numbers two ships one cassette one
voyage
you need not go to the chart room you
can call for any chart you want nor
control data Bridge was one of the early
systems providing limited chart
information on the radar display another
system with this capability was the
mitsubishi tonik preset route cursor own
ship and its speed vector mountain
symbol lighthouse impul coastline
shallow area borderline range marker
other ship and its speed vector the
early integrated navigation systems
which had the possibilities of
displaying a limited amount of chart
information used the Navy navigation
satellite system dekha Laran see radar
positioning astronavigation terrestrial
navigation and or dead reckoning to
position its own ship the more advanced
of these earlier integrated navigation
systems combine the position information
from several sources
for example NSS & Decker NSS and the ran
NSS and dr etc for professional
navigators who knew the system's
limitations and took these into account
at all times these systems provided
great assistance to navigation on many
ships and certainly made the navigators
job easier and more interesting the
early systems like today's active
systems if used by untrained or
unqualified personnel pose a threat to
their own ship and crew as well as two
other ships and the environment
unfortunately the new systems have not
been made easier to use than the earlier
once the complexity of today's system
poses a threat in itself and far more
attention and resources have to be put
into the human-machine interface field
in order to make the system's more
usable for the navigator electronic
charts have been used in military
applications for several decades however
it wasn't until november 1988 that the
International hydrographic organization
set up a working group to develop
specifications for chart symbols and
color definitions that could be
evaluated by the hydrographic offices
activist users and manufacturers during
the 14th international hydrographic
conference in 1992 and international
standard for exchange of maritime
digital electronic chart information was
established this standard is known as
s57 and consists of a data model a list
of objects a description of attributes a
description of the data exchange format
DX 90
actis is an abbreviation for electronic
chart display and information system
I a computerized system with the ability
to display all information provided on a
paper chart together with information
provided for many other sources such as
GPS r / radar etc act this information
may be divided into two main groups
chart related information navigation
related information standard
requirements functions and features
fractus are given in IMO resolution ah-1
719 adopted on the twenty-third of
november 1995 although several
manufacturers produce active systems and
activist has been around for some time
relatively few ships are equipped with
such systems the number of ships
equipped with a cactus is expected to
increase rapidly in the near future as
the availability of digital charts so
far has been limited and the charts
available have been relatively expensive
this is contributed to relatively low
numbers of active systems in the world
merchant fleet so far another negative
factor was that actors did not legally
replace the paper chart before the
summer of nineteen ninety nine
the human-machine interface and user
friendliness of the early active systems
is not what the Mariner wants and is
likely to accept today the technology
for improvement is here
detectives manufacturers have to invest
more effort and money to make it more
user-friendly and improve its
operational safety operators who feel
that they're active system is not user
friendly and safe to use should let the
manufacturer know about their
experiences with the system this is the
only way its operators can put pressure
on the manufacturers and contribute to
better HMI
this information may include
geographical chart information lights
boys leading lines of traffic lanes
special areas etc hydrographic office
information local chart information user
notes manufacturers information chart
work planned route bearing lines range
rings etc own ship position and velocity
vector ships head and rate of turn past
track etc navigational warnings and
alarms generated by activist fix
accuracy position check from secondary
positioning system ship handling options
based on ships characteristics
alphanumeric navigation information
information from radar and other sensors
remained us
it should be the aim of the presentation
design and presentation standards to
provide as much diversity and
flexibility as possible as long as the
system remains simple and
straightforward to use act is
flexibility of presentation may include
displaying or removing various types of
chart and non chart information
selecting standard chart display or
detail display and simplified symbols or
full symbols using curse interrogation
for further details overlaying or
removing radar video or radar target
information overlaying or removing
various other sensor information
changing the scale orientation of the
display selecting trumotion or relative
motion changing the screen layout giving
navigation and chart warnings graphical
presentation of computer evaluation of
grounding danger graphical presentation
of collision danger Exodus has an
important capability of detecting the
need for warnings and alarms here are
some examples of possible warnings
planned route infringes the safety
contour or enters a prohibited area
displays over scale
conversely there is more detailed
information available that is displayed
some examples of activist alarms the
ship's projected position infringes the
safety contour or a hazard to navigation
the ship's course made good poses a
hazard to navigation
priority of information is important
when using actus non h/o information
should not obscure a chart information
and information ahead of the ship along
the planned route should have priority
over information a stern of the ship
navigators hope and believe that
tomorrow's activist will be more user
friendly than the system today a clear
distinction between the need to have and
the rather nice to have functions and
features must be maintained the
manufacturers should only offer
additional options if they are clearly
useful and can be accommodated without
confusing the operator
tomorrow's activist manufacturers should
consult specialists in the following
fields Mariners with relevant experience
in the use of activist the Mariners can
tell the system design people what is
need to have and what is nice to have
human factor specialists the human
factor specialists have accumulated vast
knowledge on presenting information and
are experienced in testing how humans
react to give information