AIS Target Mouseover Data

[idpnd]

SethDart has made several contributions to AIS in Opencpn lately, including an extension of the AIS mouseover dialogue:
"AIS Target Rollover can barely be seen. The only visible info is ShipName&Type if available"



Dave says: "all you really need in real time is the name of the target in order to make the radio call for passing agreement. The rest is interesting, but busy."

I think the alpha improvement is great anyhow, and I would like to propose the opinion survey as above to find out how people feel about the volume/content of data displayed.

[champ8242]

Other - please elaborate

make a choice out one of the five above in the toolbox

[SethDart]

The main enhancement was to add a background to this rollover, either AlphaBlended as this screenshot, or simple solid coloured background.

The fields displayed there were more a "Proof of Concept" for the better visibility. They were taken from a screenshot found on Panbo http://www.panbo.com/assets_c/2010/0...tors-2081.html

Originally Posted by bdbcat

BTW, the reason for the limited info in the rollover is this:
IMHO, all you really need in real time is the name of the target in order to make the radio call for passing agreement. The rest is interesting, but busy.

We must keep this in mind. IMHO the MMSI & CallSign can be usefull as well (MMSI for DSC call, CallSign are sometime used as well)
So I'd vote for ["ShipName" MMSI CallSign] if this "busy" version is not used.

Last but not least (comment from Dave):

Also, remember that we are not trying to emulate any existing charting
application. We can and must be better!

Thanks

[idpnd]

The alpha looks great thanks Sethdart (havent been able to test newer betas due to low bandwidth).

I do feel it would be good to have CPA and TCPA, that way you can see how close a vessel will get and when upon mouseover, even if no alarm has been triggered yet. The vessel's course/speed would be difficult to evaluate when doing quick "mouseover browsing" of targets in the vicinity in my opinion.

[Netsurfer]

Hi folks ,

trying to find one fixed option seems a bit like building a car for all purposes to me.

For example:

Dave says: "all you really need in real time is the name of the target in order to make the radio call for passing agreement. The rest is interesting, but busy."

This is absolutely useless if you have no radio on board. In this case other information may be more interesting.

IMHO there are so many different thinkable preference one may have (at least depending on the individual situation) that whichever option is choosen, it won't be the right one for most of the users.

So I vote for "make it configurable".
Then each one can select the option which suits his needs best.

Gunther

@SethDart
BTW: Could you make the AIS Target List sortable (e.g. by clicking on the heading and toggeling asc - desc)?
A config setup for which data to be displayed in the list would be great, too!
But it is a great improvement by now!

[idpnd]

Can't got to sea without radio.. and certainly not in Germany!

[Netsurfer]

Originally Posted by idpnd

Can't got to sea without radio.. and certainly not in Germany!

This was an example (came no other to my mind ).
But even though we have radio on board, it is fairly less used ... !

[SethDart]

What do you think about using target colour like Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions
Then displaying ship type would not be necessary

[idpnd]

I thought there some sort of colour coding in place already?

[bdbcat]

Here is a "feature request" from me...

If you have DSC capable VHF radio, connected to opencpn by some means, then right click on AIS target should have context menu option to place direct bridge-to-bridge DSC call to this target.

I don't have such a radio, but they are becoming cheap and common in US waters.

Dave

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

If you have DSC capable VHF radio, connected to opencpn by some means, then right click on AIS target should have context menu option to place direct bridge-to-bridge DSC call to this target.

"This should be an easy AIS to DSC VHF feature, and I’m sure it will be, eventually. But right now only the Simrad AI50 supports it, and that’s only if wired via SimNet (NMEA 2000) to Simrad’s (expensive) N2K VHF. I think the problem is that the message “call MMSI xxx on channell yy” is not in the NMEA 0183 standard, and not yet completely in the NMEA 2000 standard."

http://www.navagear.com/2009/01/aisd...nwhy-the-wait/

[SethDart]

Hi OpenCPNers,

Here's a new version :
- Default OpenCPN behavior is unchanged (Type+ShipName or MMSI) visibility is enhanced with AlphaBlending background
- Three checkboxes for the three lines (ShipName+MMSI+CallSign || COG+SOG || CPA+TCPA)

AlphaBlending was moved to navutil so it can be reused elsewhere.

Note: The AIS option panel is full and should be rearranged to remove scrollbar... TBD.

Note[2]: This is a full patch to current CVS. Please reverse previous patch first

patch -R -p0 <opencpn-aistargetrollover.diff.doc