Wireless ‘voyage management system’

Interesting story in The Digital Ships’ January newsletter (pdf) about the deployment of a ‘Voyage Management System’ that has a wireless (Wi-Fi) extension. This deployment is done on a large vessel, but some elements will definitely be useful on smaller (private) yachts as well. One of the more innovative features is that, via the handheld, the crew can check where passenger are in emergency situations using RFID tags. That, in combination with another feature mentioned below, makes it a great Big Brother tool…:
“The pocket computer can also show CCTV pictures from cameras around the ship, and history of where the ship has been and the alarms which have sounded. It can also serve as a trigger for the ship security alert system, so that seafarers anywhere on the ship can sound the alarm if the vessel is in an emergency. (Furthermore,) the wireless communications technology can carry voice communications, so the handheld device can effectively act as a radio.”