Patent ID: 7949413

Claim:
A method of operating an operator interface terminal, the method comprising: receiving individual data points from a machine at individual time points according to a first time interval; correlating each of the individual data points to a corresponding one of the individual time points as the data points are received; displaying the data points correlated to the time points on a touch screen to an operator; while the data points are being displayed, receiving an operator comment and an operator direction to correlate the operator comment with one of the time points or with one of the data points through the touch screen from the operator; storing the data points, the time points correlated to the data points, and the correlated operator comment within the operator interface terminal; transferring the time points, the data points correlated to the time points, and the correlated operator comment stored in the operator interface terminal to an information system periodically according to a second time interval, wherein the second time interval is greater than the first time interval; receiving a control instruction from the operator; and processing the control instruction to transfer a control signal to the machine, wherein the control signal drives the machine to operate based on the control instruction.