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Hand Controller Sketches

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treddie	Hand Controller Sketches	Lead	[-]
Posts: 21 (09/18/08 01:08:46) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Howdie. I decided to start a new thread here. I previously had started a long-winded discussion about the pod hand controllers in the Wonderfest thread, and all of this got me thinking hard about these controllers. After spending some hours reviewing the bluray, and RegiStacking frames, I came up with this latest effort to get my mind around these peculiar items: http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=0ad3f41 This is much closer than my last sketch, and takes me closer to building a 3D model in ProE. I think I'll back away from it for awhile, so that I can come back and have an objective point-of-view about the sketch in general. Have been sketching out full size orthos of it based on my hand to get it in the ballpark, and after refinements, will plug the result into a program I've built over the years to verify sizing and proportions with existing photographs. I have excellent scaling info on the pod interior, so the result should end up being something like 99% accurate in general shape and size. When everything looks like it's there, I'll move over to ProE and build it. I just wish there was better reference material on it, as I am convinced that the bluray was made from a 35mm master and not a 65mm master. Even though bluray only gives approx. 35mm quality, at least the film grain would have been significantly reduced if they HAD used the 65mm copy. That's my take anyway. If anyone knows to the contrary, please let me know. I really wish I had well lit production photos of it. It is scary spending a lot of time on something that really needs to be accurate, when there is a dearth of information to go on. Any mistakes trickle on down through the whole process...the farther you go, the harder it is to fix things. There just is not enough detail in the bluray or any of my collection of rare photos to see the exact shape of buttons, those weird squigglies, seams, textures, etc. Lately, I've been feeling that I have seen this thing before in an industrial setting. It seems that I recall it on one of those huge, sloping desk, style control panel environments with many people at work, with big windows in front of them. The kind of setup you might find in a nuclear facility, or like a big manufacturing setup or something. I hope I'm not developing a false memory about this. But if it really IS a bonified, real surplus part and not a studio fabrication, it's really strange that no one can pin it down. SOMEONE has to know about it. But come to think about it, it took us all 40 years to figure out the explosive bolt button thing. And here is the frustrating part. That post over on Hobby Talk was from 2004, and it took it this long for the info to trickle down to us here for wider exposure. And even then, there had to have been numerous ejection seat engineers, military pilots, etc. who immediately recognized it in the film back in 1968. If it is a real object, there HAS to be info out there, and it's possibly right under our noses. Last Edited By: treddie 09/18/08 11:02:22. Edited 1 time.
treddie		#1	[-]
Posts: 27 (09/25/08 11:54:27) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THX11138...you were right about the ridge being a ridge and not a wheel, per your discussion over in the Wonderfeast thread. I had forgotten about the higher res B&W version of the pod interior that I had downloaded years ago along with the lores color version: http://pod.paragrafix.com...romPhil/PodcontrolsBW.jpg It clearly shows the ridge, and definitely helps support your idea of a good wall with which to push against by both of the first two fingers. (I SOOOO wish this image had higher quality...I am dieing to see what the text reads as). But I now see a new issue...those three switch looking things at the bottom of the controller. I originally caught these when I RegiStacked Aries images. They seem like a lousy place to put switches when they are so far away from being reachable by the fingers unless you grab the controller WAYYYY far forward. Then the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers can reach this area (I have been drawing up preliminary 3-views base on the size of my hand, and although the accuracy is not "locked in" yet, the measurements are clearly in the ballpark, so much so that looking at finger reach range and so on is reliable). Along these lines, it appears that the actors were gripping the controller in two fashions; 1.), gripping it so that the forefingers clearly reach over onto the finger depressions in the front, and 2.), gripping the controller farther back where the finger tips just reach over the top of the finger depressions, but don't fit into them. Clearly, both ways do not let the finger tips reach far enough to the 3 lower "switches" unless you include a THIRD way to grip the controller...way far forward. Interestingly, the front, pentagon-like shape to the profile of the "C" channel area of the controller, lends itself to the two, farther foward gripping methods, by "detenting" or "programming" natural places for the hand to grip based on the joints in the fingers and the finger-to-palm joint. I will be making some revised sketches shortly and will post them here. IF ANY COMMENTS, PLEASE RESPOND HERE, RATHER THAN IN THE WONDERFEST THREAD, AS I AM TRYING TO CONSOLIDATE ALL OF THIS INTO THIS THREAD. THANKS! Last Edited By: treddie 09/25/08 15:38:08. Edited 1 times.
treddie		#2	[-]
Posts: 28 (09/27/08 01:16:09) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I have included two new sketches, here: 3 view: http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=385a345 Hand controller grip positioning: http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=56d1a49 These are still preliminary and will go through revisions until the accuracy is dialed in. This is indeed a very strange controller. After looking into the ergonomics of it, it looks to have very interesting features as discussed in the "grip positioning" image. It raises the following questions: 1. The finger bar clearly acts as a mechanism to prevent the hand from moving any farther foward by interfering with the space between the first two fingers. But to reach the bottom "pushbuttons" (if that is indeed, what they are), the user must lift his hand over the bar, thus deactivating the deadman switch. But this adds a curious possible feature you can't appreciate until you actually work the design; namely that the finger bar tilts the hand toward the small finger side of the hand, which helps the small finger reach its pushbutton, and lines up the other two fingers with THEIR pushbuttons which tend to overshoot. These three lower pushbuttons are in an awfull place if you need to see them, which you can't unless you go out of your way to look at them. Which lends credence to having the finger bar act as a guide for the hand when trying to reach these buttons. And "blind" is the only way you can get to them. But is that what the finger bar is really doing? Because it looks by examination (which would better be served by a crude mockup) that the finger bar may actually be a second deadman switch whose exclusive purpose is to enable the three lower pushbuttons, while disabling the forward switches and any functions controlled by the palm deadman switch. And after initial examination, it looks like the fingers can still find the buttons without the finger bar, just not as easily. Or maybe the bar serves both functions...depressing just enough to enable the lower pushbuttons, while also serving as a guide for proper hand positioning. 2. Is the 1st finger's switch a rocker switch? It is the only switch that extends back over the top of the controller and allows the user to reach it with the hand farther back on the controller. It therefore seems to hold more importance than the second forward switch accessed by the other fingers (I have tentatively gone with a single switch for the other three fingers, rather than three separate switches, one for each finger). Last Edited By: treddie 09/27/08 01:23:14. Edited 2 times.
SAL9000		#3	[-]
Posts: 76 (09/28/08 04:45:02) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hey Treddie, Nice work. What you're doing definitely has the right look and feel. I've been trying to draw these on and off for some time now so I can make them in miniature for my pod, but I keep going back and changing things over and over. Every time I look at these references (poor as they are) they tell a slightly different story. I've posted a few of my reference shots (which I'm certain everyone has) and my last attempt at getting the profile correct. Pod set photo. Walker Photo. DVD frame. My attempt thus far.
treddie		#4	[-]
Posts: 29 (09/28/08 12:28:06) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Cool, SAL9000! Yah, the big problem with this thing is that there are very few reference shots of it, and those that are available place this dark colored controller in a very dark setting. Usually the controller has dark-colored Formica as the backdrop, under low, existing light conditions, and even the bluray can only increase the detail so much in the really dark areas (and THAT's after RegiStax). Because of this, it becomes difficult to tell when you are seeing surface details delineated by diffuse light, or simply specular reflections that have no bearing on topography (especially in the controller's "nook" area where the back portion sweeps into the larger width, front portion). With so many point sources of light (pushbuttons, displays, etc.), without REALLY hires and sharp images, it is sometimes impossible to distinguish between the two. This is exactly the reason why my pod engineering drawings have been in hiatus for so long...I know I have extremely hi-accuracy and scaling for everything so far, and I originally wanted to release them in 2001 to comemmerate the movie, but the show-stoppers have been: 1. Determining the origins of the explosive bolt 3-button armer (now only very recently and definititely found to be an ejection seat Personal Equipment Connector (PEC) from a series of Martin Baker ejection seats). 2. Details of the pilot's left-aft triangular panel (one of the few "Holy Grail" images left to discover). It was definitely built because you can see a small tad of it in the Walker photo, and it shows up in helmet reflections when it's not removed for camera access. 3. Origins of this hand controller (I swear I've seen this somewhere in either a marine setting, or on a big industrial type control panel). Functionally, it does not SEEM to lend itself well to airplane type controls, especially in hi-G environments). 4. Preferably, 70mm hires scans of the buttons and button groups for text, and exterior text.
treddie	Replacement images for bad links	#5	[-]
Posts: 71 (03/30/09 01:16:58) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Here are replacements for the bad links:

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