Personalized plant asset data representation and search system

• US 9,323,247 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Dillon, Steven R., Rome, Gregory H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Richardson, James E
• Application Number:
  US11/855,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,147 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/708
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification

Abstract

A process control system collects data, or status information, pertaining to assets of a process plant from various sources or functional areas of the plant. The collected information may then be accessed by a user through a user interface routine displaying a graphical user interface to that user'"'"'s computer. An asset data and search expert tracks user interaction with plant data by, for example, tracking the types of search fields a user most frequently searches with or the type of information a user more frequently browses for. The expert automatically profiles this tracked information to develop user preferences that are later used in personalizing the reporting of asset data, personalizing searching for asset data, and personalizing the results of such searches.

Claims

1. A method of reporting status information, the method comprising:

receiving, at a process control user interface, a user request from a user and identifying an area or device within a process plant based on the user request, wherein the area or device is associated with a first plurality of status indicators representing a measurement of health or performance of the area or device, each of the first plurality of status indicators representing a status of the area or device;

receiving, from a data source in response to the user request, user-personalized status indicators regarding the area or device, wherein the user-personalized status indicators represent a personalized selection, with respect to the user, of a subset of the first plurality of status indicators based on profile data associated with the user;

prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators based on historical user preference data of the user to identify a subset of high priority user-personalized status indicators within the user-personalized status indicators, wherein prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators comprises;

(i) automatically tracking user interaction data representing a frequency with which a user has viewed a plurality of previously displayed status indicators, where the plurality of previously displayed status indicators may include one or more of the user-personalized status indicators and where such user tracking occurs automatically without user initiated activation using an internal user interaction tracker capable of uninterrupted tracking of user interactions,

(ii) profiling historical data, in response to tracking the user interaction data, to identify the historical user preference data, the historical user preference data identifying one or more of the user-personalized status indicators as correlated to the user based on interaction time with one or more of the previously displayed status indicators, and

(iii) designating the one or more user-personalized status indicators correlated to the user as the high priority user-personalized status indicators;

generating a user-tailored report that includes the high priority user-personalized status indicators ranked above other of the user-personalized status indicators; and

displaying, to the user, the user-tailored report that includes the high priority user-personalized status indicators ranked above other of the user-personalized status indicators.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction data is tracked during a search for the status information regarding an area or device within the process plant.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction data represents a number of times a user interacts with the plurality of previously displayed status indicators.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction data represents the frequency within which one or more of the plurality of previously displayed status indicators has been accessed by a user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of status indicators comprises a health index, a variability index, a usability index, or a performance index.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of status indicators comprises an alert status or urgent event status.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising continuously tracking the user interaction data.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising tracking the user interaction data in response to a remote initiation signal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators identifies the high priority user-personalized status indicators and lower priority user-personalized status indicators, and wherein the report displays only the high priority user-personalized status indicators.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators identifies the high priority user-personalized status indicators and lower priority user-personalized status indicators, and wherein the report displays both the high priority user-personalized status indicators and the lower priority user-personalized status indicators.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators comprises prioritizing based on a single profile parameter of the historical user preference data.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

ranking the user-personalized status indicators based on a first profile parameter to determine a first data ranking; and

ranking the first data ranking based on at least one second profile parameter to produce a second data ranking.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators comprises prioritizing based on multiple profile parameters of the historical user preference data.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user request is a first search request, wherein the user-personalized status indicators contain initial search results data in response to the first search request, wherein generating the user-tailored report comprises generating a search report containing the high priority user-personalized status indicators, and wherein displaying the user-tailored report comprises displaying the search report containing the high priority user-personalized status indicators.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising displaying the user-personalized status indicators separately from the search report.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the high priority user-personalized status indicators represent predicted search results in response to the first search request.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

receiving a second search request from the user, the second search request being received after the first search request;

prioritizing the high priority user-personalized status indicators of the search report based on the second search request to create a second search report; and

displaying the second search report to a user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second search report contains only a subset of the high priority user-personalized status indicators of the search report.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the second search report contains all of the high priority user-personalized status indicators of the search report but where the priority of the high priority user-personalized status indicators has been rearranged in the second search report.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the historical user preference data comprises information regarding past user access to a status indicator regarding an area or device within the process plant.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

correlating the user-personalized status indicators to other correlated status indicators for at least one other area or device in the process plant, such that the subset of high priority user-personalized status indicators includes one or more of the other correlated status indicators and such that the status report displayed to the user includes one or more of the other correlated status indicators,

displaying a report of the other correlated status indicators to the user.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the report to the user comprises:

displaying at least one graphical illustration of the report illustrating a graphical plot relating to the high priority user-personalized status indicators.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising displaying a plurality of different graphic illustrations of the report via a plurality of different graphical plots relating to the high priority user-personalized status indicators, each graphical plot plotting the high priority user-personalized status indicators based on a different plot criteria.

24. A method of reporting status information, the method comprising:

receiving, at a process control user interface, a user request from a user and identifying an area or device within a process plant based on the user request, wherein the area or device is associated with a first plurality of status indicators, each of the first plurality of status indicators representing a measurement of health or performance of the area or device;

receiving, from a data source in response to the user request, user-personalized status indicators regarding the area or device, wherein the user-personalized status indicators represent a personalized selection, with respect to the user, of a subset of the first plurality of status indicators based on profile data associated with the user;

prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators based on historical user preference data of the user to identify a subset of high priority user-personalized status indicators within the user-personalized status indicators, wherein prioritizing the user-personalized status indicators comprises;

(i) automatically tracking, and storing as historical data, user interaction data representing a frequency with which a user has viewed a plurality of previously displayed status indicators, where the plurality of previously displayed status indicators may include one or more of the user-personalized status indicators and where such user tracking occurs automatically without user initiated activation using an internal user interaction tracker capable of uninterrupted tracking of user interactions,

(ii) analyzing the historical data to identify the historical user preference data, the historical user preference data identifying one or more of the user-personalized status indicators as correlated to the user based on interaction time with one or more of the previously displayed status indicators, and;

(iii) designating the one or more user-personalized status indicators correlated to the user as the high priority user-personalized status indicators;

determining an assurance factor for the higher priority status information;

generating a user-tailored report that includes the high priority user-personalized status indicators ranked above other of the user-personalized status indicators;

displaying the user-tailored report to the user by displaying only the high priority user-personalized status indicators if the assurance factor is above a threshold value and displaying the high priority user-personalized status indicators and the lower priority user-personalized status indicators if the assurance factor is below a threshold value.

25. An apparatus for reporting status information, the apparatus comprising:

a memory storing status indicators on the areas or devices within the plant;

a display for displaying a user-tailored report regarding an area or device within the plant; and

a status information reporter configured to;

a) receive user-personalized status indicators representing a measurement of health or performance of the area or device from a data source in response to a user request, wherein the user-personalized status indicators represent a personalized selection, with respect to the user, of a subset of the user-personalized status indicators based on profile data associated with a user;

b) prioritize the user-personalized status indicators based on historical user preference data of the user to identify a subset of high priority user-personalized status indicators within the user-personalized status indicators, where the historical user preference data is determined by

(i) automatically tracking user interaction data representing a frequency with which a user has viewed previously displayed status indicators regarding the area or device, without user initiated activation using an internal user interaction tracker capable of uninterrupted tracking of user interactions,

(ii) analyzing the user interaction data to identify the historical user preference data, the historical user preference data identifying one or more of the user-personalized status indicators as correlated to the user based on the historical data, and

(iii) designating the one or more of the user-personalized status indicators correlated to the user as the high priority user-personalized status indicators;

c) correlate the user-personalized status indicators to other correlated status information, such that the subset of higher priority information includes the other correlated status information; and

d) generate the user-tailored report that includes the high priority user-personalized status indicators ranked above other of the user-personalized status indicators.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to profile historical data, in response to data from tracking the user interactions, to identify the historical user preference data, the historical data representing past user interaction with status indicators regarding the area or device.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to:

store the user interaction data regarding user interaction with status information on an area or device within the process plant and displayed by a computer; and

analyze the user interaction data to develop the user preference data.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the user interaction data is data tracked during a search for status indicators regarding the area or device.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the user interaction data represents an amount of time a user interacts with status indicators regarding the area or device.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the user interaction data represents a number of times a user interacts with status indicators regarding the area or device.

31. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the user interaction data represents the frequency within which status indicators regarding the area or device have been accessed by a user.

32. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the user-personalized status indicators regarding the area or device comprise a health index, a variability index, a usability index, or a performance index.

33. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the user-personalized status indicators regarding the area or device comprise an alert status or urgent event status.

34. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the status information reporter is configured to continuously track user interaction data.

35. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the status information reporter is configured to track user interaction data in response to a remote initiation signal.

36. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to report only the high priority user-personalized status indicators.

37. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to report the high priority user-personalized status indicators and lower priority user-personalized status indicators.

38. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to:

rank the user-personalized status indicators based on a first profile parameter to determine a first data ranking; and

rank the first data ranking based on at least one second profile parameter to produce a second data ranking.

39. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to prioritize the user-personalized status indicators based on multiple profile parameters of the user preference data.

40. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the user preference data comprises information regarding past user access to status indicators regarding the area or device.

41. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the status information reporter is configured to:

display a report of the other correlated status information to the user.

42. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising a display controller configured to:

display at least one graphical illustration of the report illustrating a graphical plot of information relating to the high priority user-personalized status indicators.

43. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the display controller is further configured to display a plurality of different graphic illustrations of the report via a plurality of different graphical plots of the information relating to the high priority user-personalized status indicators, each graphical plot plotting the information relating to the high priority user-personalized status indicators based on a different plot criteria.