Human Computer Interaction in the ALMA Control Room

The article describes the ALMA Operations Monitoring and Control (OMC) software and its next generation user interfaces, used by operators and astronomers to monitor and control the observing facility. These user interfaces bring state-of-the-art Human Computer Interaction (HCI) techniques to the ALMA Control Room: map visualisation, semantic zooming, navigation gestures, multiple coordinated views, and decrease of time-to-point. They enable users to stay in control of dozens of antennas, hundreds of devices, and thousands of baselines. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international radio-astronomy facility, is a partnership of North America, Europe and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. It is located at the Altiplano de Chajnantor and is being operated from the Operations Support Facilities (OSF) near San Pedro de Atacama.