Touchscreens?

[F. King Daniel]

I was curious whether there was any evidence in TOS that the display screens on the Enterprise were touchscreens? Is there even a single instance where one of those blinking coloured squares is pressed?

I seem to recall reading (in either "The Making of Star Trek" or "Inside Star Trek") that an early idea for the controls was a flat black screen that lit up when a button was pressed, but it proved impractical with the technology available at the time.

Even if there isn't any evidence to support it, would you assume (especially if you take into account Enterprise, STXI and current day technology) that they are touchscreens? Or do you see TOS strictly as a 1960's period piece view of the future, where such things simply don't exist?

 

[Timo]

I would assume that TOS visual readouts are interactive to the same degree as the TNG ones are. That is, they may be touched for functionality, but in both eras the outcome is the same: the graphic does not visibly or at least discernibly react.

Wesley was seen doing a lot of fingerwork on the Okudagrams of the E-D engineering systems, without visible results, while LaForge worked on separate "keyboard" type consoles below these Okudagrams, again with few visual consequences but supposedly with equal physical ones. We might thus say that the vertical displays on the walls (and near the ceilings) have the touch functionality, but are only used by people used to that mode of working, while the majority of people prefer to sit down and achieve the same things by operating a flat "keyboard".

I would further assume that the physical keyboards of TOS, in all their generic and seemingly unergonomic glory, are just as user-configurable as the flat and featureless ones of TNG. That is, each key can be assigned a functionality selected by the user, so that Sulu essentially punches in a series of macros designed by himself when reaching for one of the interchangeable-looking buttons. Quite possibly the buttons change color according to the selected functionality, and acquire suitable labeling as well (buttons like that are being manufactured and sold today).

Finally, I'm convinced that the seemingly static graphics on the TOS bridge screens, such as apparent views of astronomical phenomena, are live images that simply happen to describe very slow processes...

As for onscreen proof or cues or ambiguous bits... I'm at loss to point to anything much. At most, I could insist that since the user interfaces of TOS thingamabobs are so extremely "primitive" or devoid of options, there must be far more functionality to the interfaces we see than meets the eye.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

where one of those blinking coloured squares is pressed?

I believe that they were fixed in position, and were incapable of being actual depressed downward. They didn't move.

 

[DrCorby]

There was an instance of different screen interactions in The Cage. Spock is reporting about the Talos Star Group, using a series of slides. To change screens, he doesn't press a button but simply waves his hand once over the controls and the screen advances. I don't remember this functionality being used later in the series, but it struck me as kind of cool. Almost a precursor to Kinect...

 

[YARN]

There was an instance of different screen interactions in The Cage. Spock is reporting about the Talos Star Group, using a series of slides. To change screens, he doesn't press a button but simply waves his hand once over the controls and the screen advances. I don't remember this functionality being used later in the series, but it struck me as kind of cool. Almost a precursor to Kinect...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybk_7ldNnZI

 

[Timo]

It is often pointed out there that the scene as shot featured an underling pressing buttons for Spock. But as the image is cropped to omit this underling, it is IMHO much more fruitful to assume that handwaving was an available interface technology back then, and was less often used in later adventures because controlled handwaving was seldom possible in crisis situations, and because "Spock lectures" soon moved to the Briefing Room set where the humbler three-screen desktop monitor was preferred.

Edit: Whoops, YARN beat me to it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DrCorby]

It is often pointed out there that the scene as shot featured an underling pressing buttons for Spock. But as the image is cropped to omit this underling, it is IMHO much more fruitful to assume that handwaving was an available interface technology back then, and was less often used in later adventures because controlled handwaving was seldom possible in crisis situations, and because "Spock lectures" soon moved to the Briefing Room set where the humbler three-screen desktop monitor was preferred.

Edit: Whoops, YARN beat me to it.

Timo Saloniemi

After all these years, I'd never heard that. Thanks for the info! (I'm at work right now; I'll watch YARN's video when I get home.)

 

[Gagarin]

The underling also has quite the eyebrows if I remember.

The helm/nav console had glass panels which could have been touch screen. But I like to think that the physical buttons could change labeling and color based on whatever function was needed. They have keyboards like that now.

 

[Maurice]

Here's the photo of the "underling".

 

[Redfern]

And here's her face.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/0x00/thecage058.jpg

(Copy and paste the link in the URL window if Trekcore gives you a "Forbidden" warning.)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[T'Girl]

Is she sitting down, or just really really short?

 

[Redfern]

Definitely yes to the former and possibly yes to the latter. I've seen an even wider shot where one can see the Burke chair in which she's sitting. There's even a between takes snapshot where we see her smiling, and she looks very approachable in that image.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone has scripted a fan-fic involving this unnamed technician.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[mb22]

Definitely yes to the former and possibly yes to the latter. I've seen an even wider shot where one can see the Burke chair in which she's sitting. There's even a between takes snapshot where we see her smiling, and she looks very approachable in that image.

Bill

Scroll down at http://www.startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html

 

[22 Stars]

Gary Mitchell slides his hand across his panel in WNMHGB implying a touch/swype sensitive display there.

 

[Shawnster]

Is she sitting down, or just really really short?

Minions are short. It's in the Union rules.

 

[Sindatur]

Is she sitting down, or just really really short?

Minions are short. It's in the Union rules.

Well yea, hence why they're called Underlings

 

[Mytran]

Actually, a lot of the seats in The Cage were set at really low heights, for whatever reason.Just look at the first bridge shot, there's a guy behind Pike and Spock with the console at virtually shoulder level!

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=20