According to Wikipedia, Critical thinking involves determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true. Situation awareness is defined as the perception of environmental elements within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. When you apply these definitions to a control room environment, this means that the operators can only make decisions based on the information that is provided to them. To make effective decisions the operators need to receive the data on time and without any lacks to the quality of the data.
Compared to traditional map boards, modern large screen systems enhance decision-making and improve situational awareness. As more and more data moves into control rooms, large screen systems are able to provide proper processing and make interpretations of data easier. There are many different kinds of display wall tools for control rooms, among them are: metal or mosaic tile walls, large paper maps and drawings, LCD or plasma panels as wells as front- or rear-projection systems. In many control room environments it is common to use combinations of the named solutions.
Contrary to static displays that typically represent a schematic view of important service areas, large screen systems by eyevis provide a real-time view of the current system status. The operator still has to interpret data from his workstation and/or the large screen system and then mentally combine the data to be able to decide on a proper response. Large screen systems add a situational awareness dimension that static walls cannot.
The strength of video display wall technologies is to show multiple data images and to provide a comprehensive real-time view of a current system status. Many sources and information can be shown simultaneously so the operator is able to see, understand, analyze and afterwards interpret the data quickly.
As the need for more data moves into the control room, to enhance decision-making and improve situational awareness, it is important that the operators have the proper tools available to improve processing and interpretation of data.