Wearable Computer in a Process Control Environment

• US 20070210983A1
• Filed: 05/11/2007
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Burr, Kent, Dove, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,125,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/2.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt

Abstract

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.

Claims

1. A wearable computer for use in a process environment having a process control system, comprising:

a processing unit;

a computer readable memory coupled to the processing unit;

a display;

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 in put 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 processing unit;

a computer readable memory coupled to the processing unit;

a display;

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:

a processing unit;

a computer readable memory;

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 memory;

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 processor;

a microphone that produces a speech signal;

a display;

a computer readable memory;

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 he 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.