TFA states that they're moving towards touchscreens instead of physical switches. To me that doesn't sound like a good idea. But maybe I just hate that it's happened in so many vehicles these days.
In a control room, you want the operators to be looking at the button/switch/knob they are about to operate, especially if they have warning/status lights on the button.
These are not the same thing. However, I agree that touch screen still seems like a not good idea, but for different reasons.
But for things not really needed in such a situation? Or even access to things that aren't available within reach otherwise due to size constraints? A touchscreen might be the best solution.
There's probably more total sensors in the reactor than there can be physical dials for in a room of that size - there'a probably already some level of ordering which are the "important" ones, or which are at prime real-estate by the operators on the panel and not the other side of the room.
There's lots of steps between "Huge array of switches and dials for every possible thing" and "Single ipad in the middle of an empty room", after all.
Everything had a place, and that place was always the same day-to-day (barring infrequent redesigns of some aspect or other, but old-school buttons-and-knobs control panels sometimes see revisions as well as the reality of what they control changes over time).
https://www.engadget.com/volkswagen-drivers-want-more-physic...
Fun fact, Olkiluoto's EPR and Flamanville, the upcoming French power plant, must use 4/3 screens because all the GUI stuff where design for this kind of display, but in the retail market such a screen format has long been replaced and now they are already struggling to get spare parts.
I have seen some new 4:3 displays around 25" sold on amazon for arcade machines... Price is too high for me, but I'm not a power plant.
It seems like a thing that is unlikely to disappear soon, since a lot of industrial customers -- globally -- are very comfortable with rack-mounted displays, and 16x9 rackmount screens are kind of meh compared to 4x3.
This issue is even worse with physical buttons.
"The core is going critical... Has anyone seen my charger?"
Brazil revisited.
(Brilliant discussion btw)
There are dozens of different buttons, so it definitely takes a period of learning to get proficient, but it just feels so nice, like I’m playing a multi ton musical instrument.