Software Interface for the Touch-Sensitive Menu of the Technician's Assister System

Abstract

A technician's assister expert system was developed using the Fault Isolation System (FIS) shell. The environment for the proposed application is the cramped irregular spaces of a ship's sonar room. A hardware interface for the software system, incorporating a touch screen, was developed and demonstrated. The interface allows touch entry of all commands, using a portable terminal attached directly to the host computer, or indirectly through the auxiliary port of a VT320 terminal. Both single-display and dual-display configurations are available through software control. This interface was developed to replace a standard terminal interface with command menus. Software was constructed to parse the standard command structure for the terminal, and supply the appropriate command structure to provide the touch interface. The software drivers for the touch screen were written in the C language and interfaced to SUN Command LISP through the use of foreign function calls made from the original software interface. The changes to the original FIS software and the drivers for the touch screen are presented. Results indicate a successful implementation. A restructuring of the interface is planned in the final customized software.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 20, 1990
Accession Number
ADA230246

Entities

People

  • Joseph A Molnar
  • Sonia Faletti

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application Software
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Environment
  • Expert Systems
  • Host Computers
  • Information Systems
  • Language
  • Lisp Programming Language
  • Maintenance
  • Software Development
  • Standards
  • System Software
  • Terminals
  • Troubleshooting

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Technology Areas

  • Space