Will Air Integration in dive computers replace the SPG?
- Thread starter CuzzA
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This is too many numbers on too many screens?
This is about as far away as you can get from intuitive. There is nothing that provides a sense of relative position, of comparative change. It has the quality of a snapshot.
Better than nothing, but there are too many abstract numbers for sure. An analog dial would be extremely useful.
Kind of reminds me of idiot lights on automobiles, instead of gauges.
It will be too many numbers (on 1 screen, actually), if they add a tank pressure readout?
ps. It's stainless steel and sapphire glass. No plastic.
OP
CuzzA
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Sorry @agilis , but you're not convincing anyone analog is "easier" to read than digital. I can respect someone's decision to choose an SPG over AI today and perhaps in the future, unless some breakthrough happens where actual gas consumption is used to help make deco theory more accurate within a computer's algorithm.
EVERYONE that reads these two clocks will interpret the digital one faster. The same can be said about nearly every analog vs. digital read out. I can appreciate arguments AI is more expensive, maybe less reliable, not as durable and some of the other issues mentioned, but not ease of reading and comprehending the data, especially when it's on your wrist compared to your waist.
And if you're extremely narced maybe it would look like this...
EVERYONE that reads these two clocks will interpret the digital one faster. The same can be said about nearly every analog vs. digital read out. I can appreciate arguments AI is more expensive, maybe less reliable, not as durable and some of the other issues mentioned, but not ease of reading and comprehending the data, especially when it's on your wrist compared to your waist.
And if you're extremely narced maybe it would look like this...
dumpsterDiver
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Actually..I disagree...for air pressure (not checking what time it is) I sometimes simply look at the (analog) gage and see that there is half or maybe 2/3 or 1/3 of the "numbers" remaining... Do I really care if it says 1500 or 1800 psi? Answer... NO.
When you start to dive deeper and you move into the narcosis depths.. a really big issue is reading the gages. It is not at all unusual for me to pick up the console and scan the info and determine.. all is OK. Then in 2 seconds.. I quiz myself and ask .. what did it say? I really don't know.. just a warm fuzzy feeling that all is OK.
If you have been diving a long time, and you have a very good gut instinct about time and deco and depth and remaining air...this sort of stupidity is not all that dangerous...It is really surprising the first 5 or 10 times it takes you 3 times to read the gages in order to actually assimilate the data in a digital sense.. For me anyway.
The analog idea is why the dive computers give you a bar graph of how much nitrogen you have absorbed (or lost during the surface internal) ... i consider these bar graph graphics quite similar to an analog gage showing you remaining supply of air....
DevonDiver
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I'm inclined to disagree. I think that people find it easier to interpret data if presented in a display they are familiar with receiving.
I wear an analogue watch and have done so my entire life. My brain is very accustomed to interpreting the needles. I read, and interpret, an analogue display many times per day. I've never owned a digital watch.
Many people don't wear analogue watches nowadays. They use their phones etc... So they will probably find a digital display more familiar and easier to assimilate that data.
Most divers are familiar with, and used to, analogue SPGs..... so there's no issue interpreting that data. It's very logical and perfect for beginners to expert alike.
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Kevrumbo
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Consider for example: Starting with a full 200bar AL80/11L tank and you consume nominally 30bar in five minutes at 18 meters depth, you will then have 170bar (200 minus 30 equals 170) remaining in your tank after five minutes elapsed time at that depth. Easy calculating this running difference arithmetic, from full tank to final surfacing Rock Bottom, that is not at all difficult to perform for the duration of the Dive. . .
Seriously -->Do you really need an Air Integration Computer over a simple SPG to do this easy subtraction operation for you?
Seriously -->Do you really need an Air Integration Computer over a simple SPG to do this easy subtraction operation for you?
Not everyone. I can glance at the analog clock and both see and understand the time in a relative sense without translating this understanding into word/numbers. It's instantaneous, at least for many people. Many watch faces dispense with numbers entirely. They are not necessary. I will concede that this deeper level of understanding is disappearing in an idiot light culture.
More importantly, an analog gauge shows relative positions, just as an oil pressure gauge in a vehicle displays changes in an operating engine rather than just an idiot light programmed to blink on at a certain point. The same holds true for such things as gas pressure gauges and other parameters displayed by a computer only as an abstract number. As with an oil pressure gauge an active understanding of process is facilitated.
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