ECDIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ECDIS - Essay Example Data supply is still a weak point of ECDIS at present. The hydrographical services are public authorities, who have now to switch from production of paper nautical charts to digital ECDIS data. Raster data is provided by official sources and fills the gaps in ECDIS data. The scanned paper charts cannot provide any real alternative to ECDIS data. Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) has been in vogue in shipping industry for over two decades now. ECDIS, however, can have a much wider application than in shipping, because electronic display and information can be used in aviation charts, street maps, railway maps, etc. In all these and other likewise segments of transport and communication, electronic display and information can be presented on a computer using the same methodology. However it is in shipping that the system is widely used and we shall restrict our discussion to the electronic nautical charts.Moreover ECDIS was initially developed for shipping, and it is in that industry that its use is wide-spread and likely to increase manifold in the future.. Electronic chart presentation is only one aspect of ECDIS. ECDIS is also an information system. ... ECDIS is also an information system. As an information system, ECDIS enables the user to access additional information on the items displayed in the graphics presentation; for instance, about a lighthouse. This may be marked on the chart by a tower symbol. The system can give further information on this object, for example, about its appearance, structure, and its current status, that is, for instance, it used to be operational once, but is no longer so, and is now preserved as a monument. The data may enable one to access, if required, further data about a detailed history of the lighthouse and view a digitalised photo of this object. The quantum and quality of the information available on the individual objects depends on how up-to-date, accurate and well maintained the data base is, not on the ECDIS itself. ECDIS stores these various details in a geographic-object oriented data base, so that ECDIS can be said to belong to the group of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The parts of ECDIS computer For the user, who is the navigator, ECDIS is only one item of equipment among many on the bridge of a modern ship. Operating the ECDIS is not the main duty of a ship's officer. Rather, the system replaces the conventional chart table and is intended to make all types of work traditionally connected with the paper nautical chart easier, more precise and faster. These include route planning, entry of observations, instructions and notes, position determination and updating charts with the aid of the Notices to Mariners (NtM). ECDIS represents an item of equipment consisting of hardware, software and the data. The hardware of the ECDIS is a computer with graphics capability, a high performance PC or a graphics workstation installed in a console linked with