Star trek panels.... Are they well thought through?

[Urge]

A lot of the action in startrek involves pushing buttons on panels, however, their panels lack all the stuff that we use on our computers and laptops. They dont have number or letter-keyboards, they dont have a mouse, a lot of them dont seem to have screens either. For me, it seems like a lot of them are just random colored squares that they press their fingers against so they make beeps. There doesnt seem to be much info presented on them either.

Have they been thought through in anny way? If they where finger-sensitive screens one should expect them to change layouts and show different info and options when the different areas of the screen is pushed, but that doesnt seem to be the case either. It doesnt look real to me - but I might be wrong.

I think that many computer-systems in the future (even on spaceships) will have things like a mouse-weel and a left-right button like we have on laptops, or they will be finger-sensitive. But they will have menues and such that can be opened and closed on the screen (I dont think we will ever go completly away from the Windows-style layout). That way, it wont be many buttons (some keyboards on certain systems) - and specialy not just buttons without either numbers, letters or symbols on them. I must be hard to learn a panel that only has color-buttons, specialy when the same colours repeats themselves on the same panel.

But I might be narrow-minded here, and star-trek panels might have some sort of logic attached to them that I have failed to understand. Thats why I want to discuss panels, information-layout and button-pushing in startrek, and in space in general on this thread.

 

[Urge]

The laptops in forexample Voyager has screens, but they dont have letter or number-buttons, so one cant write on them. Do they have a mouse-wheel? To me, it seems like they only have three or four big buttons, its very, very odd. Could it be that one can activate different kinds of alfabeth on these black screen-sections, that they are touch-sensitive and can display different forms of keyboards? Have they ever been used to write on in any of the episodes? It all seems strange to me.

 

[Urge]

Also, it seems to be way to much button-pushing, specialy in Voyager. Why does so many buttons have to be pushed all the time? What are they doing? It doesnt seem to have anny effects on the screens (that stays the same) nobody are writing annything.......

Its realy starting to bug me... It seems like its just a sort of bi-activity that goes with the dialoge. In the episode im watching now, B`Lana (the klingon girl) is having a conversation with the Chinese dude over some issue with the captain... And what does she do? Bibibibibib-- Here fingers are moving rapidly across a panel, doesnt the computer take care of annything? Is everything so unstable that they have to move around like overworked secretaries in some office all the time? What happens if they stop pushing buttons in what seems to be a random pattern? Will Voyager explode?

Aaargh! Its destroying the whole show.

 

[Bill Morris]

I made an LCARS system that works just fine and doesn't need a mouse. It's all keyboard controlled, no touchscreen. Most people can't use it, because it requires a dedicated computer (an otherwise worthless old Pentium laptop). It's not exactly like the ones in the show (the inline numbers and button labels have practical meaning, unlike the ones you pointed out), but it does demonstrate that an LCARS system can do a lot of things and be practical, smooth, and user friendly.

But if those panels and the graphics cards and programming tools to support them were available, there's no reason a practical LCARS system couldn't be made for them.

 

[Urge]

Keyboard-controlled with only four buttons? Please explain.

In second thoughts: The panels-buttons in Startrek does have words on them -its just that the camera is a bit to far away a lot of the time.
Still, this constant button-pushing seems a bit wierd at times, specialy when there is nothing happening on a screen, and no thinking or observation beetween pushing. Its to litte "Hmm, it went as i planned" or "Hmm, I have to observe how this graph is reacting before I continue" If button-pushing has consequenses, then its natural to assume that it would happen in a more slow and thoughtfull manner, at least when its not an emergency.

This should be something to think about for anny new star-trek series. Improving the button pushing fever, and make it look like they are doing something important when pushing would be an improvement.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

A few points:

Its no problem that TOS and TMP's computers look nothing like your home computer. This is the same reason that the computers on an aircraft carrier or fighter jet look nothing like your home computer. No keyboards - just specialized controls. Same could be said for TNG - except with the TNG touchpanels, controls are reconfigured as needed. If someone needed a keyboard with letters, they'd just be able to bring one up.

Trust me, the bridge of the Enterprise would look cheap if it was filled with QWERTYUIOP keyboards and mouses and I would be under the impression I was looking at a Star Trek/The Office parody crossover.

 

[judge alba]

not sure if this would count as not very well thought out but i've noticed the panels dont seem to have circuit breakers or something to isolate the user from electric shocks

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

That's dramatic license obviously - like the lack of safety restraints, survival gear lockers, emergency bulkheads - etc.

 

[Urge]

Letter-keyboards will probably only be present on personal laptops in the future. In the bridge, the communications-officer might be the only one that have one, or at least have the possibility of bringing one up - if some shy alien only wants written conversation, or the signal is to weak to support vocal communication.

 

[Urge]

In the old startrek-movies with Shatner it looks like there are more screens with info, while Voyager is almost only buttons. I like the old style better.

 

[Captain Robert April]

By contrast, the bridge of the original Battlestar Galactica had QWERTY keyboards all over the place.

 

[Kross]

Spoiler: oh noez, spoiler

In Countdown, the consoles on the Enterprise's bridge is equipped with what appears to be holographic displays.

 

[Anticitizen]

For me, it seems like a lot of them are just random colored squares that they press their fingers against so they make beeps.

Congratulations, you discovered the big secret!

In TOS, all the buttons were unlabeled gumdrops and jellybeans. TNG onward, they became unlabeled colored squares. If there was a label at all, it was a 5+ digit number.

 

[sojourner]

I think the big thing you're over looking is that most data is entered by voice. There is no reason to have keyboards most of the time. The "lack of response" from the computer displays after a button is pressed is a function of the special effects available at the time the TNG was made. They couldn't respond because it was just plexiglass. The effect's team didn't have the budget to use real crt screens to animate the computer displays. As for the speed they pressed buttons, how fast do you use a mouse to click through things in Windows? A system you have had years of familiarity with.

 

[Bill Morris]

Yes, sojourner's post above pretty much covers it. My system doesn't use touch or voice input but does have some voice output. It's designed for existing hardware you can find in a dumpster. So input is exclusively from the keyboard. But the desktop computers seen in readyrooms, quarters, and sickbay need very few physical buttons in place of a keyboard, thanks to voice and touchscreen input capability. And panels work pretty much exclusively on touch. They also will typically have a place where you can lay a PADD on the panel and transfer data in either direction between the panel and the PADD. Some panels have a section where you can lay an object and have the computer analyze it.

Here's a gallery of what my system looks like running on 10-year-old laptop:
http://lcars24.com/screenie.html

 

[therealfoxbat]

One thing people seem to forget was that little multinational nuclear exchange back in 2053. It's logical that certain kinds of technology were lost in the chaos. One such invention which was lost and never rediscovered is what we call an ELECTRICAL FUSE...

 

[Kross]

I think LCARS needs to be updated or replaced, it just seems outdated nowadays.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

The concept isn't outdated, nor is the visual feel of the GUI. Rather it was the static way it was portrayed (backlight plexiglass with the occasional video monitor) which looks a bit dated.

 

[Anticitizen]

The concept isn't outdated, nor is the visual feel of the GUI. Rather it was the static way it was portrayed (backlight plexiglass with the occasional video monitor) which looks a bit dated.

I dunno, I prefer the 2009 version:

 

[Kross]

That's no moon...



I just think it could look better.