I was the first person to express unreserved enthusiasm for AIS in this forum about 11 years and I got some grief as a result from the resident experts who were emotionally wedded to their pre MARPA radar vacuum tubes and plotting sheets. It was a useful lesson in dealing with closed minds. In one post I predicted we were not far away from a bluetooth connected pocket PDA buzzing in ones pocket when an AIS CPA safe zone was breached. That had the mankly auld blokes of the forum in stitches in 2005 since the majority had never heard of bluetooth.
My predictions back then were pretty good except I did not anticipate the iPhone and Android, and so referred to the pocket device as a PDA.
As to the future, you have all missed the next stella advance in nautical electronics coming our way. Sure there are some integration loose ends to tidy, e.g. txt messages to your MFD.
The big new thing will be intelligent software agents. The term artificial intellgennce has been kicked around the computer industry for 30 years but it is now starting to happen for real. Imagine having the instinct of the world's best helmsman encoded in your autopilot, the helmsman will learn about the behaviour of your boat and improve over a lengthy training period, his software manifestation will even infer when you have reefed or when you have the main sheeted in too hard and he will complain vocally. The product naming of Raymarine's latest autopilot suggests they have already taken a first step in this direction.
There will be more. Imagine having the wisdom of Tom Cunliff embedded in your plotter. When you drop anchor in Lulworth Cove the digitized old sage will admonish you and say "skipper remember that pile of bricks, I have looked at the weather forecast and the tide tables and have calculated you will swing 30 degrees at 2am and your keel will clip the bricks".
Another agent will monitor fuel consumption without any hard wiring to your engine ignition, it will sense when the engine is on from boat behaviour and use speed + pitch gyro stats to work out how hard the engine is working. The agent will factor in future weather and suggest refueling options based on current price data.
My predictions back then were pretty good except I did not anticipate the iPhone and Android, and so referred to the pocket device as a PDA.
As to the future, you have all missed the next stella advance in nautical electronics coming our way. Sure there are some integration loose ends to tidy, e.g. txt messages to your MFD.
The big new thing will be intelligent software agents. The term artificial intellgennce has been kicked around the computer industry for 30 years but it is now starting to happen for real. Imagine having the instinct of the world's best helmsman encoded in your autopilot, the helmsman will learn about the behaviour of your boat and improve over a lengthy training period, his software manifestation will even infer when you have reefed or when you have the main sheeted in too hard and he will complain vocally. The product naming of Raymarine's latest autopilot suggests they have already taken a first step in this direction.
There will be more. Imagine having the wisdom of Tom Cunliff embedded in your plotter. When you drop anchor in Lulworth Cove the digitized old sage will admonish you and say "skipper remember that pile of bricks, I have looked at the weather forecast and the tide tables and have calculated you will swing 30 degrees at 2am and your keel will clip the bricks".
Another agent will monitor fuel consumption without any hard wiring to your engine ignition, it will sense when the engine is on from boat behaviour and use speed + pitch gyro stats to work out how hard the engine is working. The agent will factor in future weather and suggest refueling options based on current price data.
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