Graphical user interface
Contents
1. 709 217 20 Claims 11 Drawing Sheets 100 o 120 130 HMI GENERATOR 140 DEVICE 150 DEVICE U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 1 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 100 120 DATA Format 130 140 HMI GENERATOR e ce DATA 150 FORMATN DEVICE Fig 1 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 l HMI GENERATOR DESKTOP PC WINDOWS NT Sheet 2 of 11 Fig 2 US 7 925 611 B1 HANDHELD PC POCKET WINDOWS U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 3 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 300 310 DATA SENT FROM PHYSICAL DEVICE 320 DATA RECEIVED BY HMI SOFTWARE DATA PROCESSED 2 DIMENSIONAL RENDERING 3 DIMENSIONAL RENDERING Fig 3 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 4 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 400 Nu 410 DATA SENT FROM PHYSICAL DEVICE 420 DATA RECEIVED BY HMI SOFTWARE 430 DATA PROCESSED x 450 X DATA VALUE HALVED VOLUME AREA HALVED DATA VALUE DOUBLED VOLUME AREA DOUBLED 490 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 5 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 510 500 530 san noe Ka oa 520 VALUE 150 UNITS SOFTWARE OBJECT CHANGE MADE TO SOFTWARE OBJECT H i t H H H i H i H i i H i i 4 1 H Piria dage aaa na anal VALUE 400 UNITS SOFTWARE OBJECT CHANGE MADE TO SOFTWARE OBJECT VALUE 400 UNITS SOFTWARE OBJECT CHANGE MADE TO SOFTWARE OBJECT Fig 5 VALUE 150 UNITS2. 1993 8 pages 51 Int Cl cited b GOGF 17 00 2006 01 cited oy examiner G06F 17 40 2006 01 i L P E Michael B Hol 59 USE PE 706 60 706 45 706 11 Ups Da aus RES k g 4 Assistant Examiner Adrian L Kennedy 58 Field of Classification Search 706 60 7 W 706 45 11 700 17 83 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Turocy amp Watson LLP o ao 3 Alexander R Kuszewski John M Miller See application file for complete search history 56 References Cited 67 ABSIRACA The present invention relates to systems and methods that U S PATENT DOCUMENTS facilitates rendering of data in an industrial automation envi 5 610 839 A 3 1997 Karolak etal 455 450 ronment According to an aspect of the invention a device 5 801 691 A 9 1998 Dahl analyzer can determine properties associated with a plurality 6 199 136 Bl k 3 2001 Shteyn 710 305 of devices intended for delivery of data An HMI generator 6 282 454 B15 8 2001 Papadopoulos et al 700 83 can format the data respectively in accordance with the deter 6 411 292 B1 6 2002 Cook etal 345 419 A 7 013 297 B2 3 2006 Miksovsky T 706 60 mined properties of the devices and deliver the formatted data 7 017 116 B2 3 2006 Elsbree etal 715 740 to the respective devices 2002 0046221 Al 4 2002 Wallace et al 707 513 2002 0055984 Al 5 2002 Chang et al
3. VESA Local Bus VLB Peripheral Component Interconnect PCI Universal Serial Bus USB Advanced Graphics Port AGP Personal Com puter Memory Card International Association bus PCM CIA and Small Computer Systems Interface SCSI The system memory 1016 includes volatile memory 1020 and nonvolatile memory 1022 The basic input output system BIOS containing the basic routines to transfer information between elements within the computer 1012 such as during start up is stored in nonvolatile memory 1022 By way of illustration and not limitation nonvolatile memory 1022 can include read only memory ROM programmable ROM PROM electrically programmable ROM EPROM elec trically erasable ROM EEPROM or flash memory Volatile memory 1020 includes random access memory RAM which acts as external cache memory By way of illustration and not limitation RAM is available in many forms such as synchronous RAM SRAM dynamic RAM DRAM syn chronous DRAM SDRAM double data rate SDRAM DDR SDRAM enhanced SDRAM ESDRAM Synchlink DRAM SLDRAM and direct Rambus RAM DRRAM Computer 1012 also includes removable non removable volatile non volatile computer storage media FIG 10 illus trates for example a disk storage 1024 Disk storage 1024 includes but is not limited to devices like a magnetic disk drive floppy disk drive tape drive Jaz drive Zip drive LS 100 drive flash memory card or memory stick In addi tion
4. cess of reasoning about or inferring states of the system environment and or user from a set of observations as cap tured via events and or data Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action or can generate a prob ability distribution over states forexample The inference can be probabilistic that is the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher level events from a set of events and or data Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and or stored event data whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources Various classification schemes and or systems e g support vector machines neural networks expert systems Bayesian belief networks fuzzy logic data fusion engines can be employed in connection with performing automatic and or inferred action in connection with the subject invention The present invention relates to ahuman machine interface HMI that facilitates rendering data in a platform e g an operating system within a network to display substantially similar data in disparate platform s The HMI can utilize a plurality of factors such as disparate platforms running US 7 925 611 Bl 5 HMIs disp
5. cube is increased in a greater proportion to the area of square when the value of a process point doubles That is to say in order to affect a greater change in the volume of a cube requires a lower change in the dimension of each side This disparity becomes more apparent as the value of the process point increases Also it should be appreciated that the values relating to an example of rendering the data in two and three dimensions can be quantified as values derived from geometric equations After the data is sent from the physical device 410 received by the HMI software 420 and the data is processed 430 the data can be rendered in substantially the same time as a 2 dimensional 450 and 3 dimensional object 440 In this example the data is rendered as both a 2 dimensional square and a 3 dimensional cube After the data is changed from its initial value a formula can be utilized to express the size of the software objects in their proper proportional sizes In a software object that is a 2 dimensional square Y denotes an initial value of a process point and initial area associated with the square The value of each side of the square can be expressed as an equation 25 30 40 45 50 60 10 Square Area each side can be X Y X If Y is doubled each side can be expressed as x IfY is halved each side can be expressed as V 14 X In a software object that is a 3 dimensional square Z denotes an initial value of a
6. disk storage 1024 can include storage media separately orin combination with other storage media including but not limited to an optical disk drive such as a compact disk ROM device CD ROM CD recordable drive CD R Drive CD rewritable drive CD RW Drive digital versatile disk ROM drive DVD ROM DVD recordable drive DVD R DVD rewritable drive DVD RW and any other suitable DVD drives To facilitate connection of the disk storage devices 1024 to the system bus 1018 a removable or non removable interface is typically used such as interface 1026 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 It is to be appreciated that FIG 10 describes software that acts as an intermediary between users and the basic computer resources described in suitable operating environment 1010 Such software includes an operating system 1028 Operating system 1028 which can be stored on disk storage 1024 acts to control and allocate resources of the computer system 1012 System applications 1030 take advantage of the man agement of resources by operating system 1028 through pro gram modules 1032 and program data 1034 stored either in system memory 1016 or on disk storage 1024 It is to be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented with various operating systems or combinations of operating systems A user enters commands or information into the computer 1012 through input device s 1036 Input devices 1036 include but a
7. manipulation and control of complex and or expensive machinery occurs via a computer For example in an industrial setting a press operator can utilize a HMI to start and or stop such press via depressing a key on a keyboard Typically HMIs operable on a computer include a graphical user interface GUI to facili tate display of virtual software objects that represent indus trial system components and or actions For example a GUI can allow display of a factory floor on a single display device thereby enabling a user to quickly access a component on the factory floor via a graphical representation of such compo nent The graphical representations in turn have controls embedded thus allowing a user to make real world changes through a visual representation Controls can be implemented to communicate with I O of a physical device e g a pump via a server Such an imple mentation is typically configured to allow a HMI to graphi cally display process points I O of physical devices desir ably controlled by a user To control one or more process points the user can select a graphical software object repre senting the one or more process points Such exemplary con trol scheme utilizes a standard protocol to bring process points into an HMI environment and to communicate a value of each process point to an HMI An HMI also allows a user to log data taken on a periodic basis e g trended data to determine quality ofprocess points relat
8. receives its information The data server is polled and the path to the data is found as a function of the network protocol employed and the location of the physical device For example ifan OPC server were utilized to bring the tags into the HMI the first query would relate to the type of OPC 0 m 5 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 server being utilized Next the system would poll the network containing the physical devices and determine what IP addresses were assigned to each component For example 1f the OPC server were employed to communicate to Ethernet substantially all IP addresses associated with each physical device would be determined and compiled in the HMI After ward the IP addresses and location of each device would be referenced together to determine what device existed at that address The software object associated with the device is then employed to control the physical device when imple mented Further the software object created will provide the same I O as the physical device For example if a device contains 12 digital inputs 5 digital outputs 3 analog outputs and 2 analog inputs the software object would contain the same I O Also the proper I O would be assigned to the proper register on the PLC or other programmable machine control device that interfaced to the physical device before the I O was networked with the rest of the plant Referring now to FIG 9 representing a me
9. NT DATA STORE S COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK Fig 11 US 7 925 611 Bl 1 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates generally to industrial control systems and more particularly to the communication and display of data in a graphical format that can facilitate the control and graphical representation of equipment obtained from a plurality of devices BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Industrial control systems have enabled modern factories to become partially or completely automated in many circum stances These systems generally include a plurality of Input and Output I O modules that interface at a device level to switches contactors relays and solenoids along with analog control to provide more complex functions such as Propor tional Integral and Derivative PID control Communica tions have also been integrated within the systems whereby many industrial controllers can communicate via network technologies such as Ethernet ControlNet DeviceNet FOUNDATION Fieldbus PROFIBUS or other network pro tocols and also communicate to higher level computing sys tems Generally industrial controllers utilize the aforemen tioned technologies along with other technology to control cooperate and communicate across multiple and diverse applications Imperative to factory automation are human machine interfaces HMIs which facilitate safe and efficient interac tion between humans and machinery wherein
10. PHYSICAL DEVICE CHANGE MADE TO PHYSICAL DEVICE VALUE 150 UNITS PHYSICAL DEVICE CHANGE MADE TO PHYSICAL DEVICE VALUE 400 UNITS PHYSICAL DEVICE CHANGE MADE TO PHYSICAL DEVICE U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 6 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 610 600 K DATA ENTERED 620 FORMAT OF DATA KNOWN ARTIFICIAL INTELUGENCE 630 650 DATA PROCESSED 660 ERROR MESSAGE SENT K TEXT VIDEO AUDIO 670 680 690 Fig 6 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 7 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 700 710 DATA ENTERED 720 DEFAULT ZOOM LEVEL RENDERED 730 gt A B e e e N DATA RENDERED DATA RENDERED 740 750 760 Fig 7 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 8 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 800 810 840 SOFTWARE 850 OBJECT GENERATOR HMI GENERATOR 811 860 821 HMI GENERATOR Fig 8 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 9 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 DETERMINE DATA STATE Fig 9 900 910 920 930 940 950 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 10 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 E A 1 Operating System i a 1010 TENO lt 1030 Applications l Ph JJ 1032 Modules LE a 1034 Data 1012 Output Device s 1040 Input Device s 1036 Network Interface 1048 Remote Computer s 1046 Fig 10 U S Patent Apr 12 2011 Sheet 11 of 11 US 7 925 611 B1 PA 1100 1130 SERVER S CLIENT S CLIE
11. US007925611B1 az United States Patent 10 Patent No US 7 925 611 B1 Bromley et al 45 Date of Patent Apr 12 2011 54 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE 2002 0070957 Al 6 2002 Trajkovic et al 2003 0070061 Al 4 2003 Wong etal 712 220 B 2003 0107588 Al 6 2003 Elsbree et al 345 700 WP ENIS S Aa oI A 2003 0120714 Al 62003 Wolffetal LLS 709 200 estminster CA Monte Leroy 2003 0174169 Al 9 2003 Tiwari Fevang Surrey CA Shafin A Virji 2004 0056890 Al 3 2004 Hoa et al Vancouver CA 2004 0133853 Al 7 2004 Poerner etal 715 514 2004 0205185 Al 10 2004 Leonik 709 224 73 Assignee Rockwell Automation Technologies OTHER PUBLICATIONS Inc Mayfield Heights OH US Jeong Dan Choi Ki Jong Byun Byung Tae Jang Chi Jeong Hwang Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this A Synchronization Method for Real Time Surround Display Using patent is extended or adjusted under 35 inca Sezono TE de 4 pages ordon Stoll Matthew idge Dan Patterson ebb Steven U S C 154 b by 899 days Berman Richard Levy Chris Cay Wood Milton Taveira Stephen Hunt and Pat Hanrahan Lightning 2 A High Performance Display 21 Appl No 10 670 582 Subsystem for PC Clusters Aug 2001 8 pages Thomas A Funkhouser and Carlo H Sequin Adaptive Display 22 Filed Sep 25 2003 Algorithm for Interactive Frame Rates During Visualization of Com plex Virtual Environments
12. ata associated with an existing HMI for display on a new device for which the existing HMI is not configured the at least one of code or disparate data is modified according to at least one of a property limitation or software plug in of the new device 6 The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of devices include at least one of a display a data store a server a personal computer a desktop computer a laptop computer a personal digital assistant a hand held computer a cell phone or a tablet computer 7 The system of claim 1 wherein the physical device includes at least one ofa valve a pump a relay or a press 8 The system of claim 1 wherein the HMI generator comprises an input component that obtains a common data input for creation of the one or more multi dimensional software objects 9 The system of claim 8 the one or more multi dimen sional software objects are assigned specific data 10 The system of claim 9 wherein the specific data varies at least one of size color translational location rotation ofa software object text audio video visibility enable or dis able state object state objecttype object text trending zoom level audio volume specification ofaudio clips specification of video clips starting or stopping animation 11 The system of claim 8 wherein a change to the com mon data input affects the one or more multi dimensional software objects 12 The system of claim 1 wherein
13. ation or software plug in associated with a plurality of devices intended for delivery of data received from a physical device within the industrial automation environment means for receiving the data from the physical device and generating at least one of code or disparate data for a Human Machine Interface HMI based on the at least one of property limitation or software plug in of the plurality of devices the means for receiving delivers the at least one of code or disparate data to the plurality of devices and means for rendering a multi dimensional software object that represents at least one process point associated with the physical device based at least in part on the at least one of a property limitation or software plug in wherein the means for rendering effectuates a change of state in the physical device based on manipulation of the software object
14. ation a microprocessor based appliance a peer device or other common network node and the like and typically includes many or all of the elements described rela tive to computer 1012 For purposes of brevity only a memory storage device 1046 is illustrated with remote com puter s 1044 Remote computer s 1044 is logically con nected to computer 1012 through a network interface 1048 and then physically connected via communication connec tion 1050 Network interface 1048 encompasses communi cation networks such as local area networks LAN wide area networks WAN and wireless wide area networks WWAN LAN technologies include Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDDI Copper Distributed Data Interface CDDI Ethernet IEEE 1102 3 Token Ring IEEE 1102 5 and the like WAN technologies include but are not limited to point to point links circuit switching networks like Integrated Ser vices Digital Networks ISDN and variations thereon packet switching networks and Digital Subscriber Lines DSL WWAN technologies include but are not limited to trans mission of radio signals over analog digital cellular or PCS networks and can include signal transmission through micro waves and or other electromagnetic waves Communication connection s 1050 refers to the hard ware software employed to connect the network interface 1048 to the bus 1018 While communication connection 1050 is shown for illustrative clarity inside computer 1012
15. ceives the data and generates at least one of code or disparate data for a HMI in accordance with the at least one of property limitation or software plug in ofthe plurality of devices the HMI generator delivers the at least one of code or disparate data to the plural ity of devices and a processing component that renders one or more multi dimensional software objects that represent at least one process point associated with the physical device based at least in part on the at least one of a property limitation or software plug in of the plurality of devices wherein manipulation of the one or more 0 m 5 30 40 45 50 18 multi dimensional software objects effectuates a change of state in the physical device 2 The system of claim 1 wherein the processing compo nent facilitates modifying a data value of the at least one process point by changing data values associated with the one or more multi dimensional software objects 3 The system of claim 1 wherein the processing compo nent receives an input for selection of the at least one process point from a nested data structure 4 The system of claim 1 further comprising a communi cations component that maps data path information to the data delivered to one of the plurality of devices to enable communication between the data and the HMI 5 The system of claim 1 wherein the HMI generator automatically modifies the at least one of code or disparate d
16. d or code generated to be suitably rendered on the device In a similar manner the present system can determine for example scripting languages e g Java script Visual Basic for Applications etc plug ins e g ActiveX controls Ole Objects etc etc associated with and or supported by a particular device and modify data and or code accordingly to provide a best fit for the device If the format of the data type is unknown artificial intelli gence A I 640 is employed to determine a proper format in which to render the data The A I can render the data in a variety of ways until a proper format is identified and then format and render the data properly If the A I determines that none of the data introduced can be read 650 the data is not processed and an error message is sent 660 to the HMI The error message may be transmitted in a plurality of formats For example the error message may be transmitted by having the data value appear as a series of grayed out asterisks on the HMI display However if the A I determines that some data can be read 650 the data will be processed 630 and rendered 670 690 within the HMI as described above Thus A I can be utilized to render data in a suitable format if data format is unknown Further A I can render a portion of data if substantially all the data cannot be rendered and allow the readable data to be sent to the HMI environment For example if data is introduced with partially d
17. d utilizing a two axis methodology The rendering of the data is corre lated to process point values and allows for variance of a two dimensional object in a plurality of attributes such as size color variance etc Furthermore the data set utilized to display a three dimensional software object can be associated with process point values in the same manner The HMI contains an algorithm or algorithms to process data and provide data sets displaying values corresponding to values of process points associated with physical devices The algorithm is utilized to process the data sent and provide data sets displaying values corresponding to values of process points associated with physical devices A user may choose the appropriate algorithm or algorithms to properly render a software object to an HMI Turning now to FIG 4 a methodology 400 is shown uti lized to modify aspects of software objects in 2 dimensions describing the same process points as software objects dis played in 3 dimensions Data is sent from a physical device 410 and received by an HMI generator 420 The data is processed 430 and changes in the value of data will be reflected at substantially the same time in both a 2 dimen sional HMI software object 450 and a 3 dimensional HMI software object 440 reflecting a corresponding change in value of the process point Changes in the data values can be displayed differently in a 2 dimensional HMI software object than the data chang
18. e in a3 dimensional HMI object For example a 2 D rectangle can be associated to a process point e g I O from a physical device in a plurality of ways A change in the data value can be displayed as a change in only the height of the rectangle or alternatively can be shown as a change to both the height and width of the rectangle Similarly a 3 dimensional rectangle can associate process points that adjust the height width or length individually or all three dimensions at substantially the same time The user may select specific changes made to software objects associated with process point value changes For example the area ofa 2 dimensional square can be associated so that it will double in area when the value ofa corresponding US 7 925 611 BI 9 process point doubles in value Similarly the volume of a 3 dimensional cube can be assigned so that it will double in volume when the value of a corresponding process point doubles in value For example a process point can be associated to the square by a user so a linear relationship exists between the value of the process point and the area of the square There fore if the initial area of a square is 1 unit when the value of the process point value doubles the process point associated with the area of the square will be 2 unit and the length and width will 1 41421 units Comparatively the volume of a cube can be associated with a process point so that a linear relationship e
19. efective or unreadable information data that is undamaged can still be located and rendered Further the A I 640 can have associated with it a memory not shown that will allow unknown data types to be stored and utilized if they are introduced The memory will store the type of data format and the known method of rendering the data allowing the data to be rendered by the HMI properly Therefore the memory will allow for a more efficient method of rendering data properly when an unknown type of data is introduced Referring now to FIG 7 a methodology 700 illustrates cluttering or de cluttering data in a display associated with a zoom level chosen in an HMI The zoom level relates to a plurality of disparate views associated with a display coupled with an HMI wherein data associated with process points can be hidden or exposed to the user Further it should be appre ciated that the zoom level and the data exposed does not necessarily represent a linear relationship whereby the greater the zoom level the greater amount of process point values are exposed The process points can be associated with substantially any level of zoom and allow the data to be displayed in whatever fashion the user desires Artificial intel ligence not shown can be utilized to infer a default zoom level based on past zoom levels chosen by a user Initially data is entered into the HMI 710 and rendered based on a default zoom level 720 After a user chooses a z
20. ention FIG 2 is an exemplary platform of running an HMI in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a methodology for adjusting graphics in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 4 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary modifica tions to a data set in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system employed to manipulate software objects in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 6 is a block diagram illustrating output of data to a display in accordance with an aspect of the present invention 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 FIG 7 is a flow diagram for relaying data to a display in relation to a zoom level in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 8 is a block diagram illustrating automatically gener ating software objects in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 9 illustrates a methodology for rendering data based on a plurality of factors in accordance with an aspect of the present invention FIG 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example operat ing environment in which the present invention may function FIG 11 is a schematic block diagram of a sample comput ing environment with which the present invention can inter act DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is now described wit
21. format Input required to render an HMI on a plurality of disparate display devices can be from one or more process points within an industrial system For example a system can include various components wherein I Os of the components is monitored and data obtained can be utilized to render an HMI The present invention thus provides for numerous func tionalities such as truncating various aspects of a rendered interface so as to make most efficient use of capabilities of a hardware device For instance an optimal HMI can be ren dered utilizing the available hardware device One aspect of the invention relates to a view anywhere software that provides for a highly scalable HMI architecture The view anywhere software enables graphical display of an entire factory floor wherein an operator can navigate through factory hierarchy until a desirable level is reached For example a factory floor can include a plurality of selectable disparate systems and the disparate systems can be associ ated with several components A user can therefore view the factory floor and select a desirable system thereby facilitat ing display of the system Thereafter a specific component within the system can be desirably selected and a graphical representation of the component as well as information relat ing to the component can be relayed to a display device This aspect of the present invention thereby provides for rendering of HMI ina manner coincident wit
22. h capabilities of hardware employed with the rendering of data US 7 925 611 BI 3 In accordance with one aspect of the present invention software objects within a HMI that represent physical devices can be manipulated thereby effectuating a desirable response from the physical devices Software objects representing physical devices can be rendered in sufficient detail to display various intricacies associated with the physical devices For example a physical device can include a variety of mecha nisms to manipulate operation including push buttons slid ers dials gauges etc A software object representing the physical device can likewise include graphical representa tions of such mechanisms wherein manipulation of the mechanisms in software can effectuate manipulation of the physical mechanisms In accordance with another aspect ofthe present invention data can be delivered to a particular platform in optimal format e g text images audio For example intricate data can be optimally viewed as an image on a computer monitor while the same data is best viewed textually on a PDA Determination ofa best format for conveying data can be facilitated by utilizing artificial intelligence techniques and or via user selection The invention can also employ Al based functionality for inferring a best manner in which to render data given various state conditions and or other extrin sic data and or historical data and or traini
23. h reference to the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout In the following descrip tion for purposes of explanation numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention It may be evident however that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details In other instances well known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describ ing the present invention As used in this application the term computer compo nent is intended to refer to a computer related entity either hardware a combination of hardware and software software or software in execution For example a computer compo nent may be but is not limited to being a process running on a processor a processor an object an executable a thread of execution a program and or a computer By way of illustra tion both an application running on a server and the server can be a computer component One or more computer com ponents may reside within a process and or thread of execu tion and a component may be localized on one computer and or distributed between two or more computers The subject invention can incorporate various inference schemes and or techniques in connection with effecting a user interface for object management and manipulation As used herein the term inference refers generally to the pro
24. he system of claim 1 wherein the processing compo nent employs the at least one process point to modify an attribute associated with the one or more multi dimensional software objects including at least one of color size shape or location on a display screen 19 A method for renders data in an industrial automation environment comprising determining at least one of a property limitation or soft ware plug in associated with a plurality of devices intended for delivery of data received from a physical device within the industrial automation environment receiving the data from the physical device generating at least one of code or disparate data for a Human Machine Interface HMI in accordance with the at least one of property limitation or software plug in of the plurality of devices delivering by employing the HMI the at least one of code or disparate data to the plurality of devices rendering a multi dimensional software object that repre sents at least one process point associated with the 5 10 25 20 physical device based at least in part on the at least one of a property limitation or software plug in and receiving an input that manipulates of the multi dimen sional software object and effectuate a change ofstate in the physical device based on the input 20 A system that renders data in an industrial automation environment comprising means for determining at least one ofa property limit
25. hereby compounding deficiencies of conventional HMIs e g substantially similar HMIs on a PDA and com puter monitor respectively require separate re program ming In view ofthe foregoing a system and or methodology mitigating programming costs associated with substantially similar HMI s displayed on a variety of platforms is desir able SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The following presents a simplified summary of the inven tion in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention It is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of the invention nor delineate the scope of the invention Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later The present invention facilitates rendering of similar HMIs for a plurality of disparate platforms e g computer monitor PDA palm pilot cell phone via automatically generat ing code and or data that is compatible with the plurality of platforms For example input from a physical device can be utilized to automatically render a substantially similar display HMIs on a plurality of disparate platforms e g an HMI rendered on a stand alone PC will be presented in a highly rich format while an HMI presented ona PDA with limited screen real estate and processing capability is displayed in a different
26. iated with a physical device as described above Data represents the con nectivity between the software object and physical device found on the factory floor Stage A shows a software object 510 and an associated physical device 530 depicting an initial value 150 units ofa physical device process point US 7 925 611 B1 11 Stage B illustrates a change in the value of the process point via the software object 520 which can be changed by a user from 150 units to 400 units However the change in value 520 made to the software object has not yet been transferred to the physical device 540 due to a delay caused by processing This delay is inherent in electrical control systems and can be composed of a processing time in the software and or hard ware of the device a data transfer time and a processing time in the software and or hardware of the physical device There fore the changed value of a process point in the HMI genera tor 510 is unchanged in the physical component 540 and remains at the initial value of 150 units Stage C shows the value of the process point in the software object 520 in the HMI 510 having the value transferred from the HMI 510 to the physical device 540 The data value is updated in the physical device 530 and reflects the change value of the process point made from the software object 510 to the physical device 530 Further it should be appreciated that the data can flow in two directions both from the HMI
27. ing to product manufacturing For example trending data can be desirable to facilitate efficient factory maintenance quality control and other similar operations Furthermore such trended data can be used to compare known ideal data with current data to ensure that a current system is operating properly Therefore a production automation system can learn from past data trends and utilize trended data to facili tate more efficient production Conventional HMI systems are associated with high imple mentation costs as several platforms e g devices and oper ating systems are required by HMI s in accordance with a 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 control scheme within an industrial setting Disparate plat forms are required in instances where control schemes vary with requirements for portability dictated by machine or fac tory layout Programming costs increase with a number of platforms required as dissimilar platforms require specific code e g code facilitating display of graphical objects on a PDA differs from code facilitating display of graphical objects on a desktop monitor Furthermore a HMI created by a computer programmer can be inefficient when imple mented within an industrial environment resulting in increased cost due to system and or process latency In such instances the programmers who created the HMI must be located to re program such HMI into several disparate plat forms t
28. it can also be external to computer 1012 The hardware software US 7 925 611 B1 17 necessary for connection to the network interface 1048 includes for exemplary purposes only internal and external technologies such as modems including regular telephone grade modems cable modems and DSL modems ISDN adapters and Ethernet cards FIG 11 is a schematic block diagram of a sample comput ing environment 1100 with which the present invention can interact The system 1100 includes one or more client s 1110 The client s 1110 can be hardware and or software e g threads processes computing devices The system 1100 also includes one or more server s 1130 The server s 1130 can also be hardware and or software e g threads processes computing devices The servers 1130 can house threads to perform transformations by employing the present invention for example One possible communication between a client 1110 and a server 1130 may be in the form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes The system 1100 includes a communi cation framework 1150 that can be employed to facilitate communications between the client s 1110 and the server s 1130 The client s 1110 are operably connected to one or more client data store s 1160 that can be employed to store information local to the client s 1110 Similarly the server s 1130 are operably connected to one or more server data store s 1140 that ca
29. lay component size and or resolution of a device receiving data etc to generate proper data format for a display device within an industrial setting In addition plug and play technologies can be utilized in connection with the present invention to facilitate automatic generation of prop erly formatted data in accordance with a particular electronic device e g display device storage device relay device Based on known attributes of a platform and its capabilities an HMI can be modified to accommodate a new setting in which data and or code will be delivered It is to be appreciated that any discussion herein pertaining to data or code or data and or code is intended to encompass either data or code or both data and code Likewise where the word code is used data is also implied The present invention enables proper formatting of HMI data to be distributed throughout a network comprising a plurality of devices wherein the devices require specific for matting to properly render the HMI data Further designing and creating in a single location provides for the HMI inter face to be standard For example a template for the HMI can be stored on a central computer and utilized throughout the entire network Thus it should be appreciated that this aspect of the present invention reduces HMI control design and development Referring now to FIG 1 a system 100 facilitating aut
30. ments based on screen resolutions color capabilities memory and processor speeds The present invention advan tageously solves the problem created by differences in com puter processing speed and display requirements by format ting data required by the handheld PC 230 For example a 3 dimensional software object created on a desktop PC 210 with a CRT monitor may be converted to a 2 dimensional object when data is delivered to a handheld PC 230 with a small LCD monitor To further this example a user can design an HMI based on an assumption that the HMI will run on a particular device such as a desktop PC with a CRT display While the HMI runs on the desktop PC it may not run cor rectly on a device with limited memory display capability etc such as the handheld PC described above The HMI generator 210 can recognize the limitations of the less capable device and morph the HMI application to run in a manner suitable to the limitations of the smaller and or less capable device Referring now to FIG 3 a method 300 illustrates process ing and rendering data in both two and three dimensional renderings at substantially the same time Initially data is sent from a physical device 310 which is received by an HMI 320 Algorithms associated with the HMI are employed to process the data 330 into a two dimensional 340 and or three dimen sional 350 software object based on a user selection Two dimensional rendering enables data to be displaye
31. n be employed to store information local to the servers 1130 What has been described above includes examples of the present invention It is of course not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodolo gies for purposes of describing the present invention but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the present invention are possible Accordingly the present invention is intended to embrace all such alterations modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims Fur thermore to the extent that the term includes is used in either the detailed description or the claims such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term comprising as comprising is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim What is claimed is 1 A system that renders data in an industrial automation environment comprising a processor a memory communicatively coupled to the processor the memory having stored therein computer executable instructions configured to implement the system includ ing a device analyzer that determines at least one of a prop erty limitation or software plug in associated with a plurality of devices intended for delivery of data received from a physical device within the industrial automation environment a Human Machine Interface HMI generator that re
32. n terms of hard drive space and RAM A typical hard drive in a desktop PC can contain 50 gigabytes of storage and provide for 512 megabytes of RAM memory In comparison a handheld PC can be restricted to 32 megabytes of storage space and 64 megabytes of RAM Memory limitations can limit the amount of HMI data stored on a device and also limit the amount of data that can be processed when running an HMI application Furthermore the processing capabilities on a handheld PC 230 will be much lower than that of a desktop PC 210 For example the processing speed of a typical desk top PC utilizes a 2 gigahertz processor compared to a hand held PC s 400 megahertz processor Also consideration of screen size resolution and color capabilities of a handheld PC 230 compared to a desktop PC 210 is necessary to determine data formatting requirements For example a desktop PC 210 can have a screen size of 17 inches where a handheld PC 230 may have a screen size of 3 8 inches providing for size of all components displayed on a smaller scale in the handheld PC 230 Further the screen resolution and color capability of the handheld PC 230 is more restrictive than the desktop PC 210 For example a standard screen resolution ofa monitor utilized with the desk top PC 210 can be 1024 by 768 pixels By comparison screen resolution of the handheld PC 230 can be 240 by 320 pixels Accordingly a different data format is required to accommo date the lower resol
33. ng of a classifier explicit and implicit to perform an inference Furthermore if a data type is initially unknown or data partially damaged known and or undamaged data can still be rendered The invention has other aspects such as for example rich tag monitors the ability to drill down within a rendered image e g like map quest to focus on specific target objects presenting the same data in both 2D and 3D providing for a change in 2D which updates the 3D counterpart in real time and vice versa To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends the invention then comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the invention These aspects are indicative however of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed and the present invention is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents Other objects advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when con sidered in conjunction with the drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a block diagram illustrating an ability of an HMI platform to output data to a plurality of devices and display substantially similar characteristics of such data in accor dance with an aspect of the present inv
34. o matic generation of two or more HMIs on at least two dispar ate platforms is illustrated The system 100 comprises an HMI generator 110 that can accept data from physical devices and deliver data e g a HMI to a plurality of disparate devices 130 150 The HMI can include software representa tions of physical devices wherein manipulation of the soft ware representations effectuates change of state in the physi cal devices The devices 130 150 can be any device utilized for storing displaying and or relaying data For example the device 130 can be a display the device 140 can be a data store and the device 150 can be a server Furthermore the devices can be disparate display devices such as a desktop computer monitor a PDA cell phone display industrial PC hand held PC etc The physical devices relaying data to the HMI gen erator 110 can include various components in an industrial environment such as valves pumps relays presses etc The system 100 further comprises a device analyzer 120 that facilitates determining properties of the devices 130 150 to which data will be delivered via the HMI generator 110 Formatting and delivering the data to the devices 130 150 can occur automatically in accordance with particular compat ibility requirements of the devices 130 150 For example data delivered from physical device s can be formatted for a particular screen resolution while device 130 can be a display device utilizing a di
35. onal computers hand held computing devices micropro cessor based or programmable consumer electronics and the like The illustrated aspects of the invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where task are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network However some ifnot all aspects of the invention can be practiced on stand alone com puters In a distributed computing environment program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices With reference to FIG 10 an exemplary environment 1010 for implementing various aspects of the invention includes a computer 1012 The computer 1012 includes a processing unit 1014 a system memory 1016 and a system bus 1018 The system bus 1018 couples system components including but not limited to the system memory 1016 to the processing unit 1014 The processing unit 1014 can be any of various available processors Dual microprocessors and other multi processor architectures also can be employed as the process ing unit 1014 The system bus 1018 can be any of several types of bus structure s including the memory bus or memory controller a peripheral bus or external bus and or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including but not lim ited to 11 bit bus Industrial Standard Architecture ISA Micro Channel Architecture MSA Extended ISA EISA Intelligent Drive Electronics IDE
36. oom level 730 data is rendered 740 760 based on the assigned zoom level chosen by the user This methodology is beneficial in a display wherein a plurality of process points exist that do not require exposure to the user at substantially the same time Some HMI displays inherently require data to be exposed as the user drills down into each display For example an initial screen in an HMI can show an entire plant floor which does not necessitate exposing the value of every process point when viewing an initial screen However as the user selects disparate zoom levels associated with for example each specific production line and each physical device associated with the line the values of each process point can be exposed to the user The zoom level and associ ated data can be assigned in order to facilitate rendering of data when a certain zoom level is selected US 7 925 611 B1 13 Turning now to FIG 8 a system 800 illustrates software object generator SOG 840 capable of creating software objects 811 821 831 in an HMI after physical devices 810 820 830 are connected to the HMI Further the SOG is associated with artificial intelligence A I techniques not shown providing means for recognizing a physical device providing for a software object representing the physical device and providing a software object in an HMI The soft ware object provides for substantially similar I O as the physical device with the I O connectivit
37. process point and initial volume associated with the square The value of each side of the cube can be expressed as an equation Cube Volume each side can be X Z X If Z is doubled each side can be expressed as Vx If Z is halved each side can be expressed as V Vox Referring now to FIG 5 illustrating an exemplary system employed to manipulate software objects capable of chang ing data values of process points associated with physical devices by changing data values associated with software objects representing physical devices A user can utilize an appropriate control associated with the software object and adjust the control to affect the change to the desired process point The modification to the control can come from a plu rality of software objects including sliders push buttons dials and gauges Controlling a physical device utilizing a software object representing the device requires a process point associated with the physical device to be connected to the software object via an HMI The software object can be created using a plurality of methods such as an physical object representation imported as a bmp jpg or dxf file or the like to utilize pre fabricated artin the HMI Also an object can be selected from a plurality of objects contained in a library within the HMI or simply created by the user using drawing tools and saving the object within the HMI environment The software object can be connected to
38. re not limited to a pointing device such as a mouse trackball stylus touch pad keyboard microphone joystick game pad satellite dish scanner TV tuner card digital camera digital video camera web camera and the like These and other input devices connect to the processing unit 1014 through the system bus 1018 via interface port s 1038 Interface port s 1038 include for example a serial port a parallel port a game port and a universal serial bus USB Output device s 1040 use some of the same type of ports as input device s 1036 Thus for example a USB port may be used to provide input to computer 1012 and to output information from computer 1012 to an output device 1040 Output adapter 1042 is provided to illustrate that there are some output devices 1040 like monitors speakers and print ers among other output devices 1040 which require special adapters The output adapters 1042 include by way of illus tration and not limitation video and sound cards that provide a means of connection between the output device 1040 and the system bus 1018 It should be noted that other devices and or systems ofdevices provide both input and output capa bilities such as remote computer s 1044 Computer 1012 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers such as remote computer s 1044 The remote computer s 1044 can be a personal computer a server a router a network PC a workst
39. reated in the HMI generator 110 However when the HMI generator 110 is employed to relay properly formatted HMI data to the devices 130 150 and the properly formatted data is delivered to the display devices 130 150 located else where in the network there is inherently a different path to the process point s at the physical device For example if the properly formatted data is located at the HMI generator 110 in one location and data representing a process point has a location F Comp4 OPCServer PLC5 001 GR150 the path to the process point location can vary after the data is trans ferred to the device 130 located at F PDA1 PocketOPC Server PLC5 001 GR150 The mapping can facilitate changes in a data path to mitigate loss of data connectivity thereby enabling proper communication between the data and the HMI Referring now to FIG 2 an exemplary system 200 facili tating automatically generating and relaying properly format ted data to a particular operating system is illustrated An HMI generator desktop PC 210 is utilized on a Windows NT platform and is representative of a location to design and create HMIs A device analyzer 220 is utilized to format and deliver data to a display device handheld PC 230 in accor dance with requirements of the display device 230 receiving the data from the HMI generator 210 In accordance with one aspect of the present invention the data is delivered from a desktop PC 210 employing a Windows NT pla
40. sparate screen resolution The device analyzer 120 can make appropriate format changes to the data to accommodate the difference in resolutions The HMI gen erator 110 can relay a variety of data formats to one or more devices 130 150 wherein the data delivered to the devices 130 150 is compatible with such devices 130 150 For example device 130 can require two or more disparate for mats to enable optimal HMI rendering The device analyzer 120 can be associated with a memory not shown and a processor not shown The memory of the device analyzer can be for example volatile memory and or nonvolatile memory For example nonvolatile memory can include read only memory ROM programmable ROM PROM electrically programmable ROM EPROM elec trically erasable ROM EEPROM and or flash memory Volatile memory can include random access memory RAM which acts as external cache memory By way of illustration and not limitation RAM is available in many forms such as 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 6 synchronous RAM SRAM dynamic RAM DRAM syn chronous DRAM SDRAM double data rate SDRAM DDR SDRAM enhanced SDRAM ESDRAM Synchlink DRAM SLDRAM and direct Rambus RAM DRRAM The memory and the processor associated with the device analyzer 120 can be employed to store information regarding devices 130 150 to which data is delivered Accordingly devices 130 150 can be recognized and formatting require men
41. tform to a handheld PC 230 employing a Pocket Windows operating system The device analyzer 220 can be employed to format data delivered from the HMI generator 210 to the display device 230 Utilizing the device analyzer 220 formatting require ments for the display device 230 will be determined once the handheld PC 230 is coupled with the system 200 by contem plating a plurality of factors such as memory capacity video US 7 925 611 Bl 7 capabilities screen resolution and screen size of the device After determining the formatting requirements for the hand held PC 230 data will be transferred from the desktop PC 210 with proper data format thereby enabling the data on the handheld PC 230 to be displayed properly The handheld PC 230 can include several limitations requiring data formatting to be modified from the original state of the HMI generator 210 employed with a desktop PC For example a plurality of operating systems can be run on a plurality of handheld PCs A handheld PC can run Pocket Windows Palm OS or Linux OS platforms wherein the plat forms can have disparate formatting requirements for the data as it is input into the handheld PC Furthermore Microsoft Pocket Windows can run on a plurality of processor types such as MIPS SH3 and ARM Another consideration is the amount of memory available to process the data from the HMI generator 210 on a handheld PC 230 The memory available in a desktop computer is defined i
42. that although ren dered data is described herein as text video and or audio the present invention contemplates rendering data in any suitable format including but not limited to static images interactive images etc For example text can include written instruction such as specific pages from a user manual or a written value representing a process point Similarly video rendering can include video instruction to an HMI user or can illustrate a process function that is currently taking place Audio format ting can refer to a sound signifying a certain condition within the system or can be an audible instruction to the user to take action Additionally the present invention can employ text to speech capabilities whereby for example values of pro cess points can be spoken to a user in a language of the user s choice e g The fluid temperature in mixing vessel number three is one hundred eighty degrees Celsius Furthermore this aspect of the invention provides for determining sub formats of data which can include but are not limited to ANSI UNICODE fonts 3 D text mp3 wav jpeg mpeg etc For example a particular device may be capable of an audio file in wav format but not in mp3 format The present invention can recognize a device s rendering limitations with respect to for example graphical video 0 m 5 40 45 55 60 65 12 audio textual etc sub formats and modify the data an
43. the HMI generator includes a correlation component that associates the one or more multi dimensional software objects with one or more physical devices and an object generation component that builds the one or more multi dimensional software objects based on data cor responding to the one or more physical devices the one or more physical devices affecting changes to the one or more multi dimensional software objects and the one or more multi dimensional software objects affecting changes to the one or more physical devices 13 The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more multi dimensional software objects are imported from an outside source 14 The system of claim 12 further comprising an interface that selects data to associate with the physical devices 15 The system of claim 12 further comprising an interface that selects specific attributes of the one or more multi dimen sional software objects corresponding to data associated with the one or more physical devices 16 The system of claim 1 wherein the processing compo nent renders data based at least in part on at least one ofa user US 7 925 611 B1 19 access data level a data type or a data state that employs the processing component in an HMI residing in a processing environment 17 The system of claim 16 further comprising a user based association between displayed data and the at least one of the user access level the data type or the data state 18 T
44. the newly added physical device 810 the compo nent is created and added to an HMI library and made avail able to a user Also the HMI will recognize substantially all the components connected to the system so that upon initial startup for the HMI the physical devices connected to the HMI will be available as software objects and ready for use in the HMI By allowing physical devices to be recognized by the HMI and available to the user the programming of the system becomes more efficient The user is not required to re create software objects utilized from project to project that involve substantially the same physical devices The user can simply choose the object from a library and implement the object in the current project as well as future projects that utilize the same or similar physical devices Further the SOG 840 provides for paths to the process points on the physical devices to the software object that allows the user to make changes to the process points I O related to each physical device The paths associated with each process point are automatically associated with the soft ware object and allow for connectivity to the appropriate physical device I O In this manner the user is able to click drag and drop the software object into an HMI and almost immediately begin to affect changes to the physical device associated with such object The path to the respective I O is determined from a data server and how the data server
45. the physical device by way of selecting a process point from a nested data structure representing the process points available in the con trol architecture The nested data structure can represent the path to the process point on the factory floor from the com puter where the HMI generator resides Further multiple process points can be selected and associated with a single software object to allow communication between the soft ware object and the process points The process points can be utilized to modify a plurality of attributes associated with the software object including color size shape and location on the screen For example a two dimensional square software object can have two process points associated with it The first process point can be utilized to vary the area of the square corresponding to a change in the first process point value A second process point can be used to vary the location of the software object corresponding to a change in the second process point value Once the software object is created and process points are associated with the software object an object is capable of outputting values to the physical device and also capable of accepting input values from the physical device The system 500 shows a software object capable of controlling and vary ing a process point associated with a physical device The software object 520 contained within the HMI 510 can be created and associated to a process point assoc
46. thodology 900 to determine how data is rendered in an HMI based on a plurality of factors First the data is entered 910 into an HMI through a data server and the data type is determined 920 The data type refers to the format of the data and whether the data is best rendered as for example text audio or visually For example if the data were in wav format a method to render the data would be in an audio format Next the state of the data is determined 930 to help decide how the data will be rendered Logically gating I O from the data can be accomplished utilizing a ladder logic interface not shown enabled to control the attributes of software controls For example if the data is higher than a pre deter mined set point the font selected for the data displayed can be red and boldfaced However if the data falls below the pre determined set point it can be displayed in a font with blue color and no boldface Other attributes to the software objects can be changed accordingly Logic parameters can be incor porated and saved and associated with a software object and saved in an associated memory not shown to utilize in the future Furthermore a user level is determined 940 to find what type of access a user will have to the data The data can be made inaccessible in a number of ways to either prevent the user from making any changes to the process point or to have the process point completely hidden from the user For example ifthe
47. to the physical device and from the physical device to the HMI Therefore the above illustration represents only one instance of data transfer The data value can also be transferred from the physical device 540 to the software object 520 In this scenario the value of the process point would be first changed in the physical device 530 The means to facilitate such change would occur from a pushbutton dial indicator or some other input appa ratus connected to the physical device The system would also provide for an alternative system of data transfer whereby the data would first be changed in the physical device then later reflected in the software object as data that is changed There fore the data transfer is shown as a bi directional flow since either the software object or the physical device can first provide a change in the process point that will later be reflected by the physical device or software object respec tively Referring now to FIG 6 showing a methodology 600 for determining data format and rendering data in a proper for mat Initially the data is entered into the HMI 610 and the format of the data is queried 620 For example one method of determining format of the data is to compare the data to known formats until one is found that is matching If the data introduced matches a known data format then the data will be processed 630 and rendered as at least one of text 670 video 680 or audio 690 It is to be appreciated
48. ts can be known upon an occurrence that the devices 130 150 are interfaced to a network Therefore the memory and processor allow the device analyzer 110 to accumulate and utilize data formatting requirements of the devices 130 150 employed in subsequent data transfers Artificial intelligence AI techniques can be utilized to determine formatting thereby enabling data delivered to the devices 130 150 to be properly formatted For example the devices 130 150 can be disparate display devices e g a desktop monitor hand held monitor PDA and graphi cal representations desirably displayed can appear substan tially similar on each display device Furthermore the AI techniques can be associated with a memory device in order to automatically facilitate data formatting requirements nec essary for the transfer of data to a specific device For example if the device 130 has already been connected to and received data from the HMI generator 110 data formatting can be done automatically upon a subsequent occurrence that the device 130 is connected to the HMI generator 110 Further the device analyzer 120 can map data path infor mation to data delivered to the device s 130 150 The data is representative of one or more process points from a physical device input into the HMI generator 110 located within a network Typically data paths to process points are stored when a software representation of the physical device is origi nally c
49. user does not have the proper access level they may View the data but are unable to make any changes to the data Similarly if the user does not have the proper access level some data points can be hidden from the user com pletely Therefore taking into account all the above param eters data is rendered 950 and can be exposed hidden or disabled corresponding to such as user access level data state or data type In order to provide a context for the various aspects of the invention FIGS 10 and 11 as well as the following discussion are intended to provide a brief general description of a suit able computing environment in which the various aspects of the present invention can be implemented While the inven tion has been described above in the general context of com puter executable instructions ofa computer program that runs on a computer and or computers those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention also can be implemented in com bination with other program modules Generally program modules include routines programs components data struc tures etc that perform particular tasks and or implement particular abstract data types Moreover those skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventive methods may be prac US 7 925 611 BI 15 ticed with other computer system configurations including single processor or multiprocessor computer systems mini computing devices mainframe computers as well as per s
50. ution to enable displaying graphics in a substantially similar manner regardless of the platform on which the HMI is displayed Furthermore colors available in a handheld PC 230 may not allow for similar display of data as created on a desktop PC 210 unless the data is formatted properly For example the display on a handheld PC 230 may be capable of recognizing and displaying 16 bit depth and 64 000 colors compared to 64 bit depth and 16 million colors in a desktop PC 210 Therefore data transferred from the desktop PC 210 can provide for a lower color bandwidth to deliver graphics to the handheld PC 230 facilitating proper display of data by the handheld PC 230 Another consideration is the type of monitor utilized to display the software objects employed with the HMI Two types of technologies relating to computer monitors include CRT cathode ray tube and LCD liquid crystal display A typical desktop PC 210 utilizes a CRT monitor which is brighter and has better screen resolution than a comparable LCD display found on a handheld PC 230 Furthermore the viewing angle of an LCD display is lower than a CRT display For example an LCD display can allow for 100 degrees of viewing angle where a CRT monitor can provide for almost 180 degrees of viewing angle from the front of the monitor 25 30 35 40 45 65 8 Differences between the desktop PC 210 and the handheld PC 230 can necessitate different data formatting require
51. xists between the value ofthe process point and the volume ofthe cube Therefore a cube with an initial value of 1 unit can double when the process point value doubles creating a software object where the volume of the cube will be 2 unit and the length width and height will be 1 25599 units The difference in the relationship of a process point asso ciated with a square and a cube can be demonstrated by using another example extrapolating the values so the process point value increases by 16 times The following equations dem onstrate the difference required in 2 and 3 dimensional objects necessary to vary the size of the software object Square widthxheight Original value 1 unit 1 unitx1 unit Process point doubles 2 unit 1 41421 unitsx1 41421 units Cube widthxheightxlength Original value 1 unit 1 unitx1 unitx1 unit Process point doubles 2 unif 1 2599 unitsx1 2599 unitsx1 2599 units There is a difference of 0 15431 or 7 7 of each corre sponding side to double the value between the 2 D area and 3 D volume Square widthxheight Original value 1 unit 1 unitx1 unit Process point x16 16 unit 4 unitsx4 units Cube widthxheightxlength Original value 1 unit 1 unitx1 unitx1 unit Process point x16 16 unit 2 5198 unitsx2 5198 unitsx2 5198 units There is a difference of 1 4802 or 9 25 of the x16 value between the 2 D and 3 D rendering It should be appreciated that the value of the volume of the
52. y already in place Further the software object 811 821 831 will have substan tially similar graphical representation relating to the physical device 810 820 830 providing for an intuitive user interface to the physical device The SOG 840 is associated with an HMI generator 850 utilized to create interfaces to physical devices 810 820 830 Initially a physical device 810 can be interfaced to the HMI generator 850 through a plurality of means including an inter face to a control network to facilitate a recognition process Interfacing to the HMI generator allows a polling process to initiate wherein the protocol required to communicate with the device is first utilized in order to determine a family of products a physical device is associated with The SOG is enabled to facilitate communication to a database containing a plurality of software objects representing the physical devices From the polling conducted and results regarding the communication of the physical device and I O of the physical device a comparison is made to the software objects associ ated with the database Furthermore the SOG 840 is associated with an AI com ponent not shown which facilitates recognizing a new physical device added to the system The AI component will monitor the system on a periodic basis to ensure that substan tially all the devices connected to the system are represented and available as a software object After the AI component recognizes
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