How to make HMI scalable and mobile

As technology advances, increasingly the interactions between operators and machines take place over multiple platforms, including tablets and smart phones. Developing the screens is not always the easiest task. And screens built for one platform, such as a PC browser may not be scalable for another, such as a smart phone.

Opto 22 has developed a system for building simple, effective web-based interfaces to monitor and control systems and equipment using computers and mobile devices. Using only a web browser, groov lets you quickly build and deploy web-based automation, monitoring, and control applications that work on almost any computer or mobile device regardless of its operating system. groov delivers mobility, visibility, accessibility, and simplicity.

groov screen on a smart phone shows the scalability of the software.
Basic screen capture of a typical groov desktop.
groov on an iPad

“ groov is a “human device interface” (HDI) instead of an HMI,” said Benson Hougland, vice president, marketing, Opto 22, “because it takes the regular HMI in a different direction: towards the tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices that have become part of our home and professional lives.”

groov was developed with proven HMI best practices in mind, including those defined by the High Performance HMI Handbook, providing the tools necessary to build intelligible information and control screens. groov is not intended to directly replace an HMI, but to augment HMI systems by making important information easily available on almost any mobile device.

The Groov Box

The groov system consists of the:

groov Box – Industrially hardened appliance that interfaces with Opto 22 control systems and runs the groov web application.
groov Build – Web application’s mode for creating a groov project (the interface).
groov View – Web application’s mode for running a groov project in any modern web browser.
groov View for iOS – iOS app for groov View (optional).
groov View for Android –Android app for groov View (optional).

Pricing
groov will be available in April 2013.

Opto 22
www.opto22.com