Monday, 26 May 2014

Guide To Siemens HMI Software

By Marci Glover


Human-computer interaction as a branch of computer science is concerned with the user-oriented design of interactive systems and their human-machine interfaces (HMI). Knowledge of computer science is complemented by cognitive science, ergonomics, sociology to create Siemens HMI software. Important sub-areas of human-computer interaction, include usability engineering, E -learning, context analysis, interaction design and information design.

A set of multiple monitors, devices and control surfaces form a console or management station. From a console, an operator receives notifications and performs control actions. A control room may contain one or more control stations. The control rooms and control stations can be found in many different applications, such as control tower of an airport, control center for police and ambulances and nuclear power plant. The design of the passenger compartment of airplanes and helicopters includes the highly specialized user interfaces.

In any case, in this context of human-machine interfaces, usability and accessibility aspects are of primary importance. With the advent of digital instrument clusters, it is becoming increasingly important to conduct in-depth study of HMIs in the automotive industry. In computer science, the term GUI (Graphical User Interface or GUI) indicates the layer of modern operating systems that allows interaction with the user through graphics rather than with keyboard commands (command line interface, CLI).

HMI places less emphasis on objectives, procedures and physical activity. The problems tackled by HMI operations are a natural extension of the classical objectives of engineering psychology, except that new problems have a significant cognitive, communication and interactive nature, not previously considered in engineering psychology and helped advance the field in various directions.

Ergonomic studies have also emphasized the relation of working conditions with stress and the visual perception of images. In assessing the current user interface, or developing new interfaces, designers should keep in mind the following principles of development: From the outset, it is necessary to focus on users and tasks. Set the number of users who are required to perform tasks. Iterative design involves determining the number of users, tasks, making empirical measurements.

The following steps are usually applicable in iterative development: develop a user interface, perform testing, and analyzing the results. Iterative development steps are repeated until a practical, user-friendly interface is created. Variety of techniques outlining design technique of human-computer interaction began appearing during the development of this field in the 1980s. Most development methodologies have evolved from models of interaction of users, developers and technical systems. Newer techniques such as cognitive processes of users are treated as predictable and quantifiable.

One can observe that the HMI are increasingly disconnected from the actual implementation of controlled mechanisms. Alan Cooper distinguishes three interface paradigms: technological paradigm - the interface reflects how the controlled mechanism is built. The paradigm of metaphor that can mimic the behavior of an interface as an object of everyday life and thus already controlled by the user. Idiomatic paradigm that uses interface elements in stereotyped behavior, consistent and therefore easy to learn but not necessarily modeled on real-life objects.

Researchers are involved in the development of new methods of design, experimentation with new hardware devices, prototyping new software systems, exploring new paradigms for interaction and the development of theories and models of interaction. In a study of Personal Information Manager (PIM), human-computer interaction makes it an expansive information environment - people can work with various forms of information to understand and effectively influence the desired changes.




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