Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US8125405?dq=7,343,408
Timestamp: 2016-08-27 01:44:48
Document Index: 93844484

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 100', 'Application No. 102', 'Application No. 200510129924', 'Application No. 0220734', 'Application No. 2008', 'Application No. 2005', 'Application No. 2002', 'Application No. 2008', 'Application No. 2002', 'Application No. 2000', 'Application No. 200510129924', 'Application No. 02142729', 'Application No. 02142729', 'Application No. 04', 'Application No. 08']

Patent US8125405 - Wearable computer in a process control environment - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsA wearable computer for use in a process control environment includes a central processing unit, a memory and a number of other or integral devices such as a display, a microphone, a video camera, a voice recognition unit and a remote communication device that communicates with a host computer. The wearable...http://www.google.com/patents/US8125405?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US8125405 - Wearable computer in a process control environmentAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS8125405 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 11/747,777Publication dateFeb 28, 2012Filing dateMay 11, 2007Priority dateFeb 12, 1999Fee statusPaidAlso published asDE10006126A1, DE10006126B4, DE10066477B3, DE10066478B3, US7230582, US20070210983Publication number11747777, 747777, US 8125405 B2, US 8125405B2, US-B2-8125405, US8125405 B2, US8125405B2InventorsAndrew P. Dove, Kent Allan BurrOriginal AssigneeFisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (94), Non-Patent Citations (45), Referenced by (3), Classifications (11), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetWearable computer in a process control environment
US 8125405 B2Abstract
A wearable computer for use in a process control environment includes a central processing unit, a memory and a number of other or integral devices such as a display, a microphone, a video camera, a voice recognition unit and a remote communication device that communicates with a host computer. The wearable computer provide information pertaining to one or more devices within a process control system (such as diagnostic information, help information, operator overviews, schematics or process parameter information) via the display. The wearable computer also executes a voice recognition routine that processes a received voice signal to automatically identify user inputs such as commands, process control devices within the field of view of the wearer, device tags, etc. and uses the user inputs to change a display, to alter a process signal, to retrieve device information etc.
1. A wearable computer for use in a process environment having a process control system, comprising:
a computer readable memory coupled to the processing unit;
an input device that provides an input signal to the processing unit; and
one or more software routines stored in the computer readable memory and executable on the processing unit to process the input signal and provide process information pertaining to the process control system via the display based on the input signal;
wherein the input device is a microphone, the input signal is a speech signal and the one or more software routines includes a speech recognition routine that processes the speech signal to develop a user input.
2. The wearable computer of claim 1, wherein the process information is diagnostic information related to a device.
3. The wearable computer of claim 1, wherein the process information is help information related to a device.
4. The wearable computer of claim 1, further including a remote communication device that communicates with the process control system and wherein the process information is a process value obtained from a device by the process control system and sent to the wearable computer via the remote communication device.
5. The wearable computer of claim 4, wherein the remote communication device is a wireless ethernet transceiver.
6. The wearable computer of claim 1, further including an imaging input device that produces an image frame and including an optical character recognition unit that performs optical character recognition on the image frame.
7. The wearable computer of claim 6, wherein the imaging device is a video camera that produces a multi-frame video signal and the wearable computer further includes a frame grabber that grabs the image frame from the multi-frame video signal and provides the image frame to the optical character recognition routine.
8. The wearable computer of claim 1, wherein the one or more software routines uses the user input to identify a device.
9. The wearable computer of claim 8, wherein the one or more software routines processes the user input to determine a device tag.
10. The wearable computer of claim 9, wherein the process information is help information related to a device associated with the determined device tag.
11. The wearable computer of claim 9, further including a remote communication device that communicates with the process control system and wherein the process information is a process value obtained by the process control system from a device associated with the device tag and sent to the wearable computer via the remote communication device.
12. The wearable computer of claim 1, wherein the display is a heads up display.
13. The wearable computer of claim 1, wherein the speech recognition routine processes the speech signal to develop the user input in the form of a command.
14. A wearable computer for use in a process environment having a process control system, comprising:
a routine stored in the computer readable memory and run on the processing unit that produces an image for display on the display;
a microphone that produces a speech signal; and
a voice recognition unit that processes the speech signal to identify a command,
wherein the routine causes changes to be made in the image displayed on the display based on the identified command.
15. The wearable computer of claim 14, wherein the voice recognition unit compares the speech signal to a set of stored recognized commands to identify the command and wherein the set of stored recognized commands are related to moving a cursor on the image displayed on the display.
16. The wearable computer of claim 15, wherein the set of stored recognized commands comprises one of a left movement command, a right movement command, an up movement command and a down movement command.
17. The wearable computer of claim 14, wherein the voice recognition unit compares the speech signal to a set of stored recognized commands to identify the command and wherein the set of stored recognized commands are related to entering alpha-numeric data in a field within the image displayed on the display.
18. The wearable computer of claim 14, wherein the routine displays the image as having a list of devices for selection and the voice recognition unit identifies one of the list of devices based on the speech signal.
19. The wearable computer of claim 14, wherein the routine displays an image having a list of channels for selection and the voice recognition unit identifies one of the list of channels based on the speech signal.
20. The wearable computer of claim 14, wherein the routine displays the image as having a process value and a field for changing the process value.
21. The wearable computer of claim 14, wherein the display is a heads up display.
22. A wearable computer system for use in altering or testing a process control system, comprising:
an input device that develops an input signal in the form of a speech signal;
a remote communication device that communicates with the process control system; a voice recognition unit that processes the speech signal to decode the speech signal; a software routine executable on the processing unit to use the decoded speech signal to develop a change signal indicating a change to be made in a parameter within the process control system and to communicate the change signal to the process control system via the remote communication device to thereby cause a change to be made to the process control system.
23. The wearable computer of claim 22, further including a display and wherein the software routine communicates with the process control system to obtain the actual value of a process signal and displays the actual value of the process signal via the display.
24. The wearable computer of claim 22, wherein the input device includes a microphone.
25. The wearable computer of claim 22, further including a display that displays an image and wherein the software routine produces a screen on the display having a list of communication channels therein and enables the user to select one of the communication channels using the input device.
26. The wearable computer of claim 25, wherein the software routine displays a type of process signal on a selected communication channel via the display.
27. The wearable computer of claim 25, wherein the software routine displays a valid range of a process signal on a selected communication channel via the display.
28. The wearable computer of claim 25, wherein the software routine enables a user to enter the change signal for the process signal in a field on the display via the input device.
29. A process control communication unit for use in a wearable computer having a processor, a microphone that develops an input signal in the form of a speech signal, a display and a remote communication device that communicates with a process control system, the process control communication unit comprising:
a voice recognition unit that decodes the speech signal to develop a user input instruction; and
a software routine stored on the memory and executable on the processor of the wearable computer to process the user input instruction to develop a change signal indicating a change to be made in a process signal within the process control system and to communicate the change signal to the process control system via the remote communication device to thereby cause the change to be made to the process signal.
30. The process control communication unit of claim 29, wherein the change signal indicates a change in a communication signal and causes the communication signal to be changed from a first value to a second value.
31. The process control communication unit of claim 29, wherein the software routine communicates with the process control system to obtain the actual value of the process signal and displays the actual value of the process signal via the display.
32. The process control communication unit of claim 29, wherein the software routine displays a set of different process control signals for selection via the display.
33. The process control communication unit of claim 29, wherein the software routine produces a screen on the display having a list of communication channels therein and enables a user to select one of the communication channels using the microphone.
34. The process control communication unit of claim 29, wherein the software routine enables a user to enter the change signal for the process signal in a field on the display using the microphone.
35. A wearable computer comprising:
a microphone that produces a speech signal;
a voice recognition unit that processes speech signal to produce an input signal;
a first software routine stored on the computer readable memory and executable on the processor to identify a process control device based on the input signal;
a second software routine stored on the computer readable memory and executable on the processor to provide an indication via the display that a previously stored information signal is available for the identified process control device when the previously stored information signal exists for the identified process control device and that provides the previously stored information signal for the identified process control device in response to a second user input selecting the previously stored information signal for the identified process control device for retrieval.
36. The wearable computer of claim 35, further including a remote communication device that communicates with a process control system coupled to the identified process control device and a further memory that stores the previously stored information signal within the process control system, and further including a third software routine that communicates with the further memory via the remote communication device.
37. The wearable computer of claim 36, wherein the second software routine displays an icon via the display as the indication.
38. The wearable computer of claim 37, wherein the second user input signal is a voice signal, the voice recognition unit processes the voice signal to identify a user command to select the icon and the second software routine replays the previously stored voice signal for the identified process control device when the icon is selected.
39. The wearable computer of claim 35, wherein the previously stored information signal is a voice signal.
40. The wearable computer of claim 35, further including a third software routine stored on the computer readable memory and executable on the processor to receive a voice signal from the microphone and store the received voice signal as being linked to the identified process control device in a further memory in response to a first user input to store the received voice signal.
This application is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 09/249,597 entitled “Wearable Computer in a Process Control System,” which was filed on Feb. 12, 1999. This application is also a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/010,016 entitled “Wireless Hand Held Communicator in a Process Control Environment,” which was filed on Dec. 10, 2004, which is a continuation in part of U.S. Ser. No. 10/936,978 entitled “Portable Computer in a Process Control System,” which was filed on Sep. 9, 2004, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/951,715 entitled “Portable Computer in a Process Control System,” which was filed on Sep. 13, 2001 and which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,806,847 on Oct. 19, 2004, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/249,597 entitled “Wearable Computer in a Process Control System,” which was filed on Feb. 12, 1999, the entire disclosure of each of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.
With the advent of smaller electronics, portable computers in the form of wearable computers have become more readily available. A wearable computer generally includes a standard central processing unit (CPU) and a memory packaged in a small container and placed within a pouch on a belt or harness worn by a user (also referred to herein as a “wearer”). Batteries for powering the wearable computer are typically located in a different pouch within the harness, which is designed to make carrying the wearable computer as convenient as possible. Peripheral devices, such as disk drives, hard drives, PCMCIA slots, microphones, bar code readers and keyboard devices may be communicatively coupled to the CPU via appropriate wires or buses and, if desired, one or more of these peripheral devices may be placed in of connected to the harness. It has also been suggested to provide a heads up display (HUD) worn by the wearable computer user to present the wearer with a visual interface. A wearable computer thereby provides portable computing power and memory to a user and, because the wearable computer is worn instead of carried by the user, the user's hands are only required to manipulate a keyboard or other input device.
FIG. 8 is a second wearable computer screen display used it the software routine of FIG. 6; and
Referring now to FIG. 1, a process control system 10 includes a process controller 12 connected to a host workstation or computer 14 (which may be any type of personal computer or workstation) and to field devices 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 via input/output (I/O) cards 20 and 22. The controller 12, which can be by way of example, the DeltaV™ controller sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc., may be communicatively connected to the host computer 14 via, for example, an ethernet connection and may be communicatively connected to the field devices 15-19 using hardware and software associated with any desired communication protocol, such as the FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus, the HART�, PROFIBUS�, WORLDFIP�, Device-Net� or CAN protocols, to name a few. As is typical, the controller 12 implements a process control routine stored therein and communicates with the devices 15-22 and the host computer 14 to control a process in any desired manner. The field devices 15-19 may be any type of devices, such as sensors, valves, transmitters, positioners, etc. while the I/O cards 20 and 22 may be any types of I/O devices conforming to any desired communication or controller protocol.
The voice recognition unit 56 which may be, for example, the Dragon Dictate system sold by Dragon Systems of Boston, Mass., or any other desired voice recognition unit, is typically implemented in software but may, alternatively, be executed on a separate processor board. In any event, the voice recognition unit 56 receives speech, voice or other sound signals from the microphone 44, performs voice recognition processing thereon and delivers commands to the controller 54 based on recognized voice inputs. The voice recognition unit 56 may perform any desired or known processing on the received voice signals to identify certain recognized speech commands or words. During this process, the voice recognition unit 56 may compare an identified voice command to a list of stored or recognized speech commands (stored in, for example, the memory 52) to determine if a valid command is being delivered by the wearer. If a recognized command has been received, the voice recognition unit 56 delivers the command to the controller 54 for further processing. Of course, if desired, the controller 54 may determine if a voice command is a valid or recognized command within the context of the application being run on the controller 54 and may notify the user when in unrecognized command is received. The voice recognition unit 56 may also have learning capabilities, as is known.
Next, a block 108 compares each of the preliminary device IDs to a list of device IDs stored in, for example, the memory 52 to verify the existence of devices corresponding to the preliminary device IDs. If co responding devices exist, the device IDs are verified and each of the verified IDs is provided by a block 110 to the controller 54 for use in other applications, to be displayed to the wearer via the HUD 40 and/or to be sent to the host computer 14 via the transceiver 36.
Similarly, the HUD driver 64 receives signals from the controller 54 including graphics to be displayed on the HUD 40, and performs appropriate processing on these signals for display via the HUD 40. In some embodiments, the HUD driver 64 and the HUD 40 may be used in conjunction with the twiddler 46 or microphone 44 to provide a standard computer operating environment, such as a Windows image having dialogue boxes, text, graphics and the like. With this environment, the wearer can move a cursor, enter information or manipulate the image on the HUD 40 to, for example, run in application or make decisions within the context of an application being executed by the wearable computer 34.
Another use of the wearable computer system 30 within a process control environment will be described in conjunction with the routine 150, illustrated in flow chart from in FIG. 6, which is preferably executed within the wearable computer system 30. Generally speaking, the routine 150 enables the wearer to check out and verify the proper connection of different devices or communication channels (such as I/O connections) within a process control environment in a hands-free manner and without the aid of an operator at a host device. Previously, verifying the proper connections of the devices or communication channels within a process control environment required a technician to go out into the field with a hand-held measurement device, such as a voltmeter, and a hand-held radio which the technician used to communicate with an operator at a host workstation. The technician first had to go to a device, indicate to the host operator via the hand-held radio that he or she was at the device and then indicate which communication channel he or she was going to check. At this point, the technician had to take a hand-held meter and actually measure the signal on the line. The technician then told the host operator, via the hand-held radio, what the measured signal was so that the host operator could verify whether the measured signal was the actual signal on the selected communication channel. Thereafter, the technician would tell the host operator to change the signal on the channel in question and the host operator would cause the signal or value of the communication channel to be changed. The technician would then measure the signal on the channel again to see if the change actually occurred. As is evident, this process required a lot of cumbersome communications between the host operator and a technician and was difficult to implement in a large and complex process control environment where the technician was trying to simultaneously manipulate a hand-held radio, a hand-held meter and obtain access to appropriate devices or communication lines. Furthermore, this process relied on communications between a host operator and the technician which tended to create confusion and to introduce errors based on miss-communications.
After a user has selected a particular communication channel to check, a block 160 displays a further screen on the HUD 40 which indicates process information corresponding to the selected channel. An example of such a screen is illustrated in FIG. 8 for the selected channel of CTLR1C02CH01. To create the screen of FIG. 8, the block 160 obtains the current process value of the selected communication channel from the host system via the transceiver 36 and displays the current value of that channel (in this case “0”) along with an indication of the quality of the signal (in this case “good”). The block 160 also provides an area for the user to enter a new process value for the channel and indicates the type of signal on that channel, that is, whether the channel is an analog channel or a digital channel, and the valid ranges of that signal. The information displayed on the screen is either stored in the memory 52 of the wearable computer system 30 or is obtained from the host computer 14 which either stores that information in a memory or obtains the information from a device. In the illustrated example of FIG. 8, the channel CTLR1C02CH01 is a digital channel currently set to the value of zero. FIG. 9 illustrates a similar screen displayed on the HUD 40 for the channel CTLR1C06CH01 which is an analog channel having a valid range of 0-100 and which has a current value of 90.
In one embodiment, a software routine for implementing this functionality (which may be stored in and executed by the processor or CPU 50 of the wearable computer 34) includes three basic routines, which may be separate routines or which may all be subparts of a single routine. The first routine identifies one or more devices within the field of view of the wearer or as being of interest to the wearer. This routine may, for example, accept voice inputs (from the microphone 44) in the form of device names, tags or other device identifiers to identify devices that are currently of interest to the wearer. Similarly, this routine may display a list of devices to the wearer via the HUD 40 and enable the wearer to select one of the displayed devices using, for example, voice commands or other inputs. Alternatively, this routine may automatically identify devices using the video image processing routine described above with respect to FIG. 4, which identifies one or more visible device features. Instead of using device features, the automatic video processing routine may identify a device based on identifiers placed on or near the device for the specific purpose of identifying the device (such as optical bar codes). On the other hand, transmitters may be placed on or near one or more devices and these transmitters may send out a signal which is received by the wearable computer 34 and decoded by the routine to identify the one or more devices. In one embodiment, a single transmitter may be used for a room or other unit area and, upon receiving and decoding the transmitted signal, the routine may access a memory (located, for example, in either the wearable computer 34 or the host computer 14) which stores all of the devices within that room or unit area. A list of these devices may then be provided to the wearer via the HUD 40. Similarly, devices that do not have tags or other automatically recognizable features may be tied (in a database) to devices that have such automatically recognizable features. Typically, devices in close proximity to one another will be tied together (associated with one another) in the database. Thereafter, whenever one of the devices having an automatically recognizable feature (a tagged device) is identified the routine may consult the database to determine other non-tagged devices that are near to, or that are otherwise associated with the tagged device and display a list of all of these devices to the wearer via the HUD 40. Of course, other methods of identifying devices can be used as well.
Using this data storage/retrieval unit, whenever a wearer (or an operator of the host system 14) identifies a device, either manually or automatically, the wearer (or the operator) can record a voice message to be associated with that device and can, likewise, retrieve and hear previously stored voice messages associated with that device. In this manner, a wearer (or operator) may make notes or leave messages about a device or other object within the process control system which can later be retrieved by the same or a different person. Such a message may, for example, inform the next person that repair is ongoing on the device, or that calibration of the device needs to be performed, or may be any other desired message pertaining to the device or object. In one simple example, a wearer may walk down a walkway within the process control environment and notice that the walkway needs to be repainted or repaired. (The walkway nay be identified automatically based on the room that the user is in, based on the proximity of the walkway to other devices that can be automatically identified using device features, based on specific codes or other features placed on the walkway to enable automatic identification, based on user generated input of any kind including voice input and hand operated device input, or in any other manner.) The wearer may select the walkway on the HUD 40 and then make a voice message indicating the repair to be made to the walkway. Thereafter, whenever the walkway is recognized as being of interest or as being viewed by a wearer of a wearable computer (or an operator at the host computer 14), the voice message is automatically made available to that wearer (or operator) and is indicated as being available by an icon (which may also be a text message) associated with that walkway on the HUD 40. In this manner, new information may be created and stored as associated with any device or object within a process control environment and this information may be later provided to a user in the same manner and or at the same time that other, more standard information (such as help information) is made available to a user.
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