Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. The following embodiments are illustrative of the present invention, and various modifications are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, in the following embodiments, " Part "or" ... Device "may be configured entirely in hardware, or may be functionally realized by executing all of the software programs predetermined in the computer. It is also possible to constitute a part of hardware and to realize the remainder functionally by executing a software program. The division of the "database" is an example, and a plurality of databases may be integrated into one, a single database may be divided into a plurality of databases, or a structure of records and fields in the database may be appropriately organized , The database may be configured by a combination other than the embodiment. Further, the positional relationship of the up, down, left, right, etc., as required, is based on the displayed display unless specifically understood. In addition, the various dimensional ratios in the drawings are not limited to the illustrated ratios.
(0 definition)
In this specification, terms are defined as follows.
&Quot; Monitoring " includes: grasping the operating state, detecting the presence or absence of abnormality, and referring to measurement information.
&Quot; Monitoring information " When the device is a measuring device, the information includes the measured value and the operating state. When the device is a controlling device, the information includes the operating state.
"Plant" refers to the space of factories where equipment to be monitored is installed, whether indoor or outdoor.
(1. Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 of the present invention relates to an aspect of generating voice information on the plant monitoring server side and providing voice based on the voice information on the portable information terminal side.
(1-1. Plant monitoring system)
Fig. 1 shows a system diagram for explaining the outline of a plant monitoring system according to the first embodiment. 1, the plant monitoring system 1000 according to the first embodiment includes a plant monitoring server 100 and various apparatuses 200-1, 200-2, A portable information terminal 300, and a controller 500. The controller 200 is a device that can be connected to the portable information terminal 300,
Each device 200 and the controller 500 are connected to each other via a field device communication bus 401. The field device communication bus 401 is a communication bus capable of transmitting and receiving a control signal for the device 200 and a detection signal from the device 200, for example, conforming to the Xbus standard.
The device 200 is a field device installed in a plant, and is roughly divided into a measuring device and a control device. The " measuring device " is a field device for measuring predetermined physical quantities (flow rate, temperature, pressure, etc.) in the plant, such as a flow rate sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, and the like. The " control device " is a field device that performs predetermined control (flow control, temperature control, pressure control, rotation speed control, etc.) in the plant, and includes, for example, a valve, a heater, a pump, and a fan. However, the " apparatus " is not limited to the above-mentioned measuring apparatus and control apparatus, provided that it is an apparatus capable of outputting usable information.
Each of the devices 200 is connected to the controller 500 via the field device communication bus 401 so as to be able to communicate with the controller 500. When the device 200 is in operation state or abnormality, So that monitoring information including measurement information can be transmitted. The device 200 is also connected to the field device communication bus 401 through a serial interface circuit (not shown). The device 200 and the serial interface circuit are connected by a communication line for transmitting an analog signal or a field device communication signal such as the HART standard.
The controller 500 is a control unit that performs overall control of each device 200. The controller 500 is configured to be able to acquire the measurement information (flow rate, temperature, pressure, and the like) acquired from the device 200 that is a measurement device and transmit it to the plant monitoring server 100. The controller 500 is also configured to transmit control information (flow rate, temperature, pressure, number of revolutions, etc.) to the device 200 as a control device based on the measurement information. In addition, the controller 500 determines whether or not the operation state of the device 200 is out of an appropriate range based on the measurement information acquired from the device 200 that is the measurement device, or when an abnormality is detected from the device 200 including the control device The status monitoring server 100 is configured to be able to transmit the status information indicating the status to the plant monitoring server 100. [
The plant monitoring server 100, the portable information terminal 300, and the controller 500 are connected to each other in the upper network 400. The upper network 400 is a computer network capable of communicating by wire and / or wireless, and is, for example, a WAN (Wide Area Network) such as a LAN (Local Area Network) conforming to the Ethernet (registered trademark) standard or the Internet. As a communication protocol between the plant monitoring server 100 and the portable information terminal 300, there may be used an infrared short distance communication standard such as IrDA (Infrared Data Association), a short distance wireless communication standard such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) (Earphone microphone) connection standard such as HSP (Headset Profile), third-generation communication standard (W-CDMA, etc.) ) Or a mobile communication standard for a cellular phone called a 3.9th generation / fourth generation communication standard (LTE or the like), a PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), or the like may be applied.
The portable information terminal 300 is a computer device that can be carried by a user who is a worker and has at least a communication function, a position detection function, and a voice generation function as described later. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the portable information terminal 300 is a wearable computer that the user wears. The portable information terminal 300 is configured to be able to transmit to the plant monitoring server 100 the user identification information stored by the user's input and the position information detected using the position detection function. In addition, as an alternative configuration, the plant monitoring server 100 is configured to be capable of transmitting audio information generated in response to a user's voice and / or image information generated using a photographing function. Details of the portable information terminal 300 will be described later with reference to Fig.
(1-2 Plant Monitoring Server 100)
The plant monitoring server 100 receives the user identification information, the location information, the audio information, the image information, and the like from the portable information terminal 300 via the upper network 400 and outputs the extracted information To the portable information terminal 300 via the communication network. Although one plant monitoring server 100 is typically provided in a plant, a plurality of computer apparatuses may be configured to be realized comprehensively by executing distributed processing. The plant monitoring server 100 may also be provided by cloud computing. The plant monitoring server 100 also receives monitoring information including measurement information in the case where the device 200 is in operation state or abnormality of the device 200 and the device 200 through the controller 500 .
2 is a block diagram of the plant monitoring server 100 according to the first embodiment. The plant monitoring server 100 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), an interface circuit, a mass storage device, a communication device , And the like as a general-purpose computer device or a workstation. The CPU stores the software program according to the plant monitoring method according to the present invention in, for example, a mass storage device, reads the program in the RAM at the time of execution, and executes the program by the CPU, .
2, the plant monitoring server 100 according to the first embodiment includes a user defined information database 101, a device definition information database 102, a monitoring information database 108, A sentence template database 107, and an importance definition data base 112. [ These databases are formed by virtually dividing a storage unit such as a RAM or a mass storage device. The information stored in each database may be text data representing characters such as those described in the drawings, but it may be a numerical value or symbol corresponding to the characters recognizable by the computer. The plant monitoring server 100 also includes a receiving unit 113 and a transmitting unit 114. The plant monitoring server 100 includes a user defined information acquiring unit 103, a position determining unit 104, an information extracting unit 105, An information analyzing unit 109, a monitoring information updating unit 110, and an importance determining unit 111. The information generating unit 106, the information analyzing unit 109, Hereinafter, this will be described in detail.
(Receiving unit 113)
The receiving unit 113 is configured to receive at least the user identification information and the position information from the portable information terminal 300 via the upper network 400. [ The receiving unit 113 also receives audio information and / or image information from the portable information terminal 300, if necessary. The reception unit 113 also receives monitoring information including measurement information or status information of each device 200 transmitted from the controller 500. [
(User-defined information database 101)
The user-defined information database 101 is a database that stores user-defined information, and is a storage unit that is mainly referred to by the user-defined information acquisition unit 103.
Fig. 4 shows a configuration example of the user-defined information database 101 according to the present embodiment. 4, the user-defined information database 101 exemplarily includes fields of "user ID", "affiliation", "title", and "preference". The " user ID " is user identification information assigned to each user to specify the user, and is recorded, for example, as an alphabet, a number, or the like. In Fig. 4, alphabets " A " to " F " are assigned as user IDs. The " affiliation " is information indicating the affiliation of the user, and is assigned, for example, a group in the organization, an imposition name, and the like. In Fig. 4, " P group ", " Q group ", and " R group " The " job title " is information indicating the job title of the user, for example, a role in the monitoring job, a job in the organization, or the like. In Fig. 4, as a job title, "primary check", "monthly difference check", and "audit" are assigned as an example. The " preference " is a field in which a user's interest, that is, the idea that the user is particularly worried about and wants to monitor is recorded in advance in a field set by the user. In Fig. 4, " sensor pressure " and " pump " are assigned as an example as a preference.
(User-defined information acquisition unit 103)
2, the user-defined information acquisition unit 103 acquires the user identification information from the portable information terminal 300, searches the user-defined information database 101, and acquires the user- And is a functional block for acquiring user definition information. For example, when the user identification information transmitted from the portable information terminal 300 is " C ", the user-defined information acquisition unit 103 searches the user-defined information database 101, P "as the" belonging "," audit "as the" position ", and" sensor pressure "as the" preference "from the record of" C " For example, when the user identification information transmitted from the portable information terminal 300 is "F", the user-defined information acquisition unit 103 searches the user-defined information database 101 to find "user ID" R group "as" affiliation "," monthly difference check "as" job title ", and" N / A "(out of application) as" preference "from the record of" F "
(Device definition information database 102)
The device definition information database 102 is a database for storing definition information of a device to be monitored and is a storage unit that is referred to by the device identification unit 104 and the information extraction unit 105.
Fig. 5 shows a configuration example of the device definition information database 102 according to the present embodiment. 5, the device definition information database 102 exemplifies the fields of "device ID", "installation location", "type", "measurement control object", "appropriate range", and "unit" As shown in Fig. The " device ID " is identification information assigned to each device to specify each device, and is recorded, for example, in numbers or alphabets. In Fig. 5, the numbers " 1001 " to " 1006 " are assigned as exemplary device IDs. The " installation position " is information indicating the installation position of each device. When the portable information terminal 300 is configured to detect the position by the GPS (Global Positioning System), it is preferable that the installation position is information that can be verified against the output of the GPS. For example, the information corresponding to the latitude / . In Fig. 5, (N1, E1) (N: north latitude, E: east side) to "N6, E6" are assigned as exemplary locations. However, when the portable information terminal 300 detects the position by another means, for example, reading a one-dimensional or two-dimensional code or inputting by a user, information that can be stored in contrast to these means is stored. The " category " is information indicating the type of the device, for example, a sensor for detecting a physical quantity in the case of a measuring device, and a control means for a controlling device. 5, a "flow sensor", a "pressure sensor" and a "temperature sensor" are assigned to the measuring device as an example, and "flow control valve", "pump" Respectively. The " measurement control object " is information indicating a physical quantity relating to measurement or control of the apparatus. In Fig. 5, "flow rate", "pressure", and "temperature" are assigned to the measurement device as an example of the measurement control object, and "flow rate", "number of revolutions" . The " appropriate range " is information indicating the range of the measured value or the drive amount to be controlled by each device. The " unit " is a range for specifying the unit of the numerical value indicated by the " appropriate range ". In Fig. 5, "m3 / h" (flow rate), "Pa" (pressure), "° C" (temperature) and "rpm" (revolution) are shown as examples.
(Device identification unit 104)
2, the device identification unit 104 obtains the location information from the portable information terminal 300, searches the device definition information database 102, and searches the device definition information database 102 for a predetermined positional relationship with the portable information terminal 300 Is a functional block for specifying the device 200 in the network. Specifically, when the device 200 located in a predetermined neighborhood area with respect to the portable information terminal 300 is found, the device 200 is specified as being in the " neighborhood ". For example, when the proximity area is set within the determination distance? D from the portable information terminal 300, the device 200 is judged to be the device 200 in the "vicinity" if the device 200 is within the determination distance? D. Instead of the determination distance, a range enclosed by a plurality of coordinate points having latitude and longitude around the portable information terminal 300 may be set as a " neighborhood area ". When the portable information terminal 300 is located in the direction of the front of the portable information terminal 300 as "near" the device 200, the device specifying unit 104 determines that the device 200 (200) is specified as the device (200) in the " front view ". For example, when the position information transmitted from the portable information terminal 300 (latitude, longitude, and azimuth) = (N3 ', E3', D3) and the positions N3 and E3 and the positions N3 'and E3' When the distance d is equal to or less than the determination distance d (d? D), the device specifying unit 104 specifies that the temperature sensor having the device ID "1003" is the device 200 existing in the "vicinity". When the temperature sensor is located in the direction of the direction D3 from the positions N3 'and E3' of the portable information terminal 300, the device identifying unit 104 determines that the temperature sensor having the device ID "1003" Quot; device 200 " Further, if the portable information terminal 300 is configured to be capable of detecting elevation angles, an elevation angle may be added to the position information in addition to the azimuth. For example, it is possible to transmit and receive a positive elevation angle in an upward elevation angle and a negative elevation angle in a downward angle with the horizontal direction being 0 deg and use it for device identification.
In the present embodiment, when the device 200 to be monitored exists in the direction of the portable information terminal 300 as " near ", it is determined as " front " For example, it may be determined as "front" based only on the direction in which the portable information terminal 300 is directed, regardless of the distance between the device 200 to be monitored and the portable information terminal 300. If the portable information terminal 300 (user) is facing the front, since the user knows by himself / herself which device 200 is watching, even if the device 200 is located relatively far away, It is because. Further, the distance d2 between the device 200 and the portable information terminal 300, which is a condition determining the "front", may be set to a distance different from the distance d that is determined as "near". For example, it is appropriate to set the distance d2 that is determined to be " frontal " to be larger than the distance d that is determined to be " near ". As described above, if the device 200 is located at a relatively long distance, the user can recognize that the device 200 is located at a relatively long distance. However, if the device 200 is not located at a relatively short distance This is because the user can not recognize which device 200 is being monitored.
(Monitoring information database 108)
The monitoring information database 108 is a database for storing monitoring information associated with a device to be monitored and is referred to by the information extracting unit 105 so as to be updateable by the monitoring information updating unit 110 It is memory.
6 shows a configuration example of the monitoring information database 108 according to the present embodiment. As shown in Fig. 6, the monitoring information database 108 exemplarily includes fields of "device ID", "type", "measurement control object", "measurement value", and "status". The "device ID", "category", and "measurement control object" are the same information as the same name field of the device definition information database 102, respectively. The " measured value " is information indicating the measured value in the case of a measuring instrument and the control amount in the case of a controlling instrument. The " status " is information indicating the status such as whether the operation status of the device is normal or abnormal. In Fig. 6, either "OK" (normal) or "NG" (abnormal) is stored as an example as a status. In the "status" field, the operation state that the controller 500 (see FIG. 1) grasps by communication with each device 200 is reflected. For example, " status " is " OK " when the device 200 returns the measured value within the " appropriate range " of the device definition information database 102, Quot; NG " when it is controlled by a drive amount outside the " appropriate range ". The " status " is " OK " when the operation state of the device 200 is normal, and is " NG " In Fig. 6, since the temperature sensor of the device ID " 1003 " is the measurement value outside the " appropriate range " NG " because the " status " is " NG ", and the fan of the apparatus ID " 1006 " Further, although the flow rate control valve with the device ID "1004" is controlled to the "appropriate range", since the information indicating the abnormality has been returned, the "status" is "NG".
(Information extracting unit 105)
Returning to Fig. 2, the information extracting unit 105 searches the monitoring information database 108 and extracts monitoring information to be provided for the specified device 200 based on the acquired user definition information . Specifically, the information extracting unit 105 searches the monitoring information database 108 with the device ID as an index for the device 200 that the device identifying unit 104 determines to be "near" or "front" , And extracts and outputs the "measurement value" and "status" of the corresponding device 200. For example, when the device 200 determined to be in the vicinity is the temperature sensor of the device ID 1003, the information extraction unit 105 extracts the measurement value 26 from the monitoring information database 108 and the status "Quot; OK " When the device 200 determined to be located on the front side is a fan having the device ID 1006, the information extraction unit 105 extracts the measured value (driving amount) 320 from the monitoring information database 108 and the status &Quot; NG " is extracted.
(Sentence template database 107)
The sentence template database 107 stores a sentence template of speech to be provided to the user and is mainly referred to by the speech information generation unit 106. [
Fig. 7 shows an example of the structure of the sentence template database 107. Fig. As shown in Fig. 7, the sentence template database 107 stores "sentence #", "item1", "item2", "text1", "item3", "text2", "item4" , "Item 5", "Item 6", and "Text 3" are exemplarily provided. The " sentence # " is a unique number specifying the type of sentence. In Fig. 7, by way of example, the sentence " 1 " is the text for the measuring instrument, and the sentence " 2 " Each field of " Item " is information specifying which field of the monitoring information database 108 is to be referred to. 7, "item 1" refers to the "type" field of the monitoring information database 108, "item 2" refers to the "device ID" field, and "item 3" refers to the item " Measurement control object " field, and " item 4 " to " item 6 " refer to each of " measurement value ", " unit ", and " status ". "Item 1", "Item 2", and "Item 6" are the same as the sentence "1" for the sentence "2", and "Item 3" to "Item 5" are blank. Each field of " text " indicates the use of the verb and the translation of the sentence constituting the sentence and the verb accompanying with each " blindness ". In Fig. 7, "text 1" refers to "to", "text 2" refers to "to", and "text 3" refers to the end "for" sentence "1". For the sentence "2", "text 1" and "text 3" are the same as the sentence "1", and "text 2" is "status".
(Audio information generation unit 106)
Returning to Fig. 2, the voice information generating unit 106 is a functional block for generating voice information corresponding to the voice provided in the portable information terminal 300, based on the extracted monitoring information. Specifically, the audio information generating unit 106 generates a sound information extracting unit 105 for the device 200, which has determined that the device identifying unit 104 is located in the " neighborhood " ("Measurement value", "status") extracted from the device definition information database 108 and information ("device ID", "type" Based on the sentence template stored in the sentence template database 107. The sentence template database 107 stores the sentence template information. As the sentence template, the template of the sentence # 1 is selected when the target device 200 is the measurement device, and the template of the sentence # 2 is selected when the target device 200 is the control device. For example, when the device 200 judged to be located in the "near" or "front" is the temperature sensor of the device ID "1003", the voice information generation unit 106 outputs the voice information to the measurement device of the sentence template database 107 Quot; 1 " as the sentence template for the sentence template, the type " temperature sensor " of the device ID " 1003 ", the device ID " 1003 " The measurement value "26" is applied to the item "4", the unit "° C." is assigned to the item 5, and the status "OK" is assigned to the item 6 " ) Is 26 degrees Celsius OK. &Quot; When the device 200 judged to be located in the "vicinity" or the "front" is a fan of the device ID "1006", the voice information generation unit 106 generates the voice information for the control device of the sentence template database 107 Quot ;, the device ID " 1006 " is assigned to the item 2, the status " NG " is assigned to the item 6 with reference to the sentence template # 2 To generate sentence information for reproducing a text string "the status of the fan 1006 is NG". The data included in the sentence information is not limited as long as the text string is read aloud by voice synthesis. For example, the data may be data expressed in ASCII code or data converted into a symbolic language expression in the text reading system.
(Importance definition database 112)
The importance definition database 112 is a database that defines the importance of the sentence information according to the user definition information and the monitoring information and is mainly referred to by the importance determination unit 111 as a storage unit.
Fig. 8 shows an example of the configuration of the importance definition database 112. Fig. As shown in Fig. 8, the importance definition database 112 stores the fields of "setting #", "affiliation", "title", "status", "distance", " Respectively. The " setting # " is a unique number specifying the importance setting. The "affiliation", "title", and "preference" are the same information as the same name field of the user-defined information database 101. Also, "any" means anything can be defined in the field. &Quot; N / A " means that the setting of the field is not considered. The " status " is the same information as the same name field of the monitoring information database 108. The " distance " is information corresponding to the information determined by the device identification unit 104, which will be described later. In Fig. 8, "near" or "front" is stored as the "distance" field. The " importance " is information indicating the importance set in correspondence with the combination of the above-mentioned fields. In FIG. 8, "3", "2", and "1" are set as the "importance". In this embodiment, the numerical value increases as the degree of importance increases.
For example, in FIG. 8, the importance level setting # 1 is set to "1" in the case where the "status" is "NG" for a device located in the "vicinity" regardless of the user's "affiliation" Quot; 2 ", and the voice information should be transmitted as the importance " 2 ". In order to remind the user that there is a device 200 in the vicinity of the plant under monitoring that the operation status is abnormal. The importance level setting # 2 is set to "3" when the "status" is "NG" for the device located in the "front", irrespective of the user's "affiliation" It means that the voice information should be transmitted. It is to be noted that the operation state of the device 200 disposed at the front of the user monitoring the plant is abnormal. For the user whose "job title" is "audited", the device 200 located in the "vicinity" is "fan" and the status is "OK" Quot; 1 ", the voice information should be transmitted. For the user whose "job title" is "audit", the device 200 located in the "front" is the "sensor" and the status is "OK" Quot; 1 " or " 2 " And notifies that the operation state of the device 200 in the vicinity or front of the user engaged in the audit work is normal. On the other hand, when the target device is set as the "preference", the status of the device 200 located in the "front" is "OK" , It means that the voice information should be transmitted with importance level "2". When the " preference " is set, it means that the user is highly interested. Therefore, in order to venture the attention of the device 200 designated as " to be.
(Importance determining unit 111)
Returning to Fig. 2, the importance determining unit 111 determines whether or not the voice information is generated based on the user-defined information extracted by the user-defined information obtaining unit 103 and the monitoring information extracted by the information extracting unit 105 Is a functional block for determining the importance of the sentence information generated by the unit 106. [ Specifically, the importance determining unit 111 determines whether or not the user defined information ("affiliation", "title", "preference") of the user using the portable information terminal 300, ("Setting #") corresponding to the combination of the position information ("vicinity" or "front" or "positional relationship") of the device 200 to be monitored is stored in the importance definition database 112 ). Then read the "importance" of the corresponding record. For example, when a user who uses the portable information terminal 300 corresponds to the user ID " A " (see Fig. 4) and is displayed on the front face of the device 200 specified by the device ID "1001" Quot; 7 " of the importance level definition database (see Fig. 8) is extracted, and the priority level "1" is output. When the user using the portable information terminal 300 passes the vicinity of the device 200 specified by the device ID "1002" (see FIG. 6) corresponding to the user ID "B" (see FIG. 4) , The setting # 1 of the importance definition database (see FIG. 8) is extracted, and the importance "2" is output. When the user using the portable information terminal 300 corresponds to the user ID " C " (see Fig. 4) and is displayed on the front of the device 200 specified by the device ID " 1003 "Quot; 12 " of the importance definition database (see Fig. 8) is extracted, and the importance degree " 2 "
(Information analysis unit 109)
The information analyzing unit 109 is a functional block that analyzes the voice information and / or the image information transmitted from the portable information terminal 300 and extracts the supervisory information to be registered in the supervisory information database 108. [ The information analyzing unit 109 is a functional block of alternatives that can be selectively applied. Specifically, the information analyzing unit 109 converts the transmitted voice information into character information or numerical information by voice recognition using a known technique, and stores the converted voice information into the measurement value or status to be stored in the monitoring information database 108 . Further, the information analysis unit 109 converts the transmitted image information into character information or numerical information by recognizing the image by applying a known technique, and stores the measurement value or status information to be stored in the monitoring information database 108 .
(Monitoring information updating unit 110)
The monitoring information updating unit 110 refers to the monitoring information extracted by the information analyzing unit 109 or the monitoring information provided from each device 200 through the device network and stores the monitoring information stored in the monitoring information database 108 It is a functional block for updating or adding monitoring information. The monitoring information updating unit 110 is a functional block of alternatives that can be selectively applied. Specifically, the monitoring information updating unit 110 updates the monitoring information database 108 based on these information when the information analyzing unit 109 extracts the information about the measured value or the status. For example, when a measurement value or a status is extracted, the measurement value and the status are overwritten and stored in the record of the device ID of the device 200 recognized as present in the " neighborhood " or " .
If the monitoring information updating unit 110 receives the monitoring information including the measurement information or the status information for each device 200 via the controller 500, the monitoring information updating unit 110 updates the monitoring information database 108 Update. For example, when the measurement information and the status information are received, the monitoring information database 108 is searched based on the identification information of the device 200 accompanying the information, In the "measurement value" or "status" field in the record.
(Transmission unit 114)
The transmitting unit 114 is configured to transmit the sentence information generated by the voice information generating unit 106 and the importance information determined by the importance determining unit 111 to the portable information terminal 300 via the network 400. [ Although not shown, the transmitting unit 114 may be configured to transmit image information to the portable information terminal 300, if necessary.
(1-3 portable information terminal 300)
The portable information terminal 300 according to the first embodiment is configured so as to be capable of communicating with the plant monitoring server 100 and corresponds to the sentence information based on the sentence information and the importance information transmitted from the plant monitoring server 100 Is provided in a mode according to a specified importance level. The portable information terminal 300 is a portable computer apparatus having at least a communication function, a position detecting function, and a voice generating function. In the first embodiment, a wearable computer of a wristwatch type or a glasses type is used. However, it is also possible to use a HMD (Head Mount Display), a smart phone, a notebook type or a laptop type personal computer, a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), or the like as other hardware aspects .
3 is a block diagram of the portable information terminal 300 according to the first embodiment. 3, the portable information terminal 300 has a configuration as a wearable computer and includes, in addition to the receiving unit 301, the transmitting unit 302, and the memory 310, 303, an image generating unit 305, a sound acquiring unit 306, an image acquiring unit 307, a position information acquiring unit 308, and an operation information acquiring unit 309. The portable information terminal 300 also includes a sound source database 304a and a sound image aspect specific database 304b as a database.
The portable information terminal 300 is configured such that the headset 320 is detachably connected. The headset 320 includes a speaker 321, a display 322, and a microphone 323.
In addition, the portable information terminal 300 has all of the hardware provided by a normal personal computer. For example, a central processing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), and an interface circuit. For example, the sound source database 304a and the voice mode specific database 304b are allotted with a storage area of a part of the ROM, and the memory 310 is allocated with a storage area of a part of the RAM. The function block is functionally realized by the CPU executing the software program stored in the ROM or transferred to the RAM.
(Receiving section 301)
The receiving unit 301 is configured to receive at least sentence information and importance information from the plant monitoring server 100 via the upper network 400. [ The receiving unit 301 also selectively receives image information from the plant monitoring server 100. [
(Sound source database 304a)
The sound source database 304a is an audio library for storing the waveform data for reproducing the sound for each of the texts included in the sentence information, As the sound source data, waveform data for reproducing sounds corresponding to various sound synthesis methods are stored. For example, when a waveform connection method is applied as a voice synthesis method, waveform data for reproducing human voice is stored for each text. In the case of applying the formant synthesis method, the waveform data of artificially adjusted artificial sound is stored. In particular, the sound source database 304a stores a plurality of waveform data of different modes for one text. For example, waveform data corresponding to a male voice and waveform data corresponding to a female voice are stored for one text.
(Speech aspect specific database 304b)
The voice mode specific database 304b is control table data defining which voice mode is assigned in correspondence with the importance information transmitted from the plant monitoring server 100. [
Fig. 9 shows a configuration example of the speech style specifying database 304b in the present embodiment. Quot ;, " sound quality ", " number of times ", and " volume " are defined in correspondence with importance levels "1" to "3" used in the present embodiment. The " sound quality " defines the characteristics of the voice to be synthesized, for example, whether it is a male voice or a female voice. The " number of times " defines the number of repetitions of the text string corresponding to the provided sentence information. "Volume" defines the volume of the pronunciation. In FIG. 9, in the importance level "1", the sound quality is "male" and the number of repetition is "1" times, and the text string is read in the volume "small". The priority level "1" corresponds to "status" of the device 200 as "OK" without any problem, and since there is no effect even if it does not take place, there is no problem in that the device 200 is provided with a stable sound quality once and at a small volume . In the importance level "2", the text string is read with the sound quality being "male", the repetition frequency being "2" times, and the volume level being "middle". Since importance "2" is surveillance of "group" having high responsibility for confirmation of "measurement value" and "status" or "supervision" of user's "job title" It is reasonable to provide it at a volume of about the same level. On the other hand, in the importance level "3", the sound quality is "female" and the reproduction is "repetition", and the text string is read with the volume "large". Since the status "3" of the device 200 is "NG" and it is required to take some action, it is necessary to set the level of the ambient noise level This is because it is necessary to repeat this with a high sound quality of a woman who is easy to understand and to provide it in a large volume.
(Speech synthesis section 303)
Returning to Fig. 3, the speech synthesis unit 303 is a functional block for generating speech information for pronouncing the speech corresponding to the sentence information, based on the sentence information provided from the plant monitoring server 100. Concretely, the data included in the sentence information are sequentially referred to, and the waveform data stored in the tone source database 304a is referred to in the referenced order. At this time, the voice synthesis unit 303 refers to the voice mode definition information database 304b using the importance information provided from the plant monitoring server 100 as an index, and acquires a voice mode specified by the importance information. Then, the speech synthesis unit 303 reads the waveform data of the sound quality corresponding to the importance specified by the importance information from the sound source database 304a to perform speech synthesis, and makes the speech synthesis unit 303 generate a sound corresponding to the importance level And generates voice information. The voice corresponding to the voice information is provided to the user mounting the headset 320 from the speaker 321 of the headset 320.
(Image generating unit 305)
The image generating unit 305 generates image data for displaying an image of a text string corresponding to the sentence information when the sentence information is provided from the plant monitoring server 100 and displays it on the display 322. [ Since the text string corresponding to the sentence information is provided by voice and is also provided as an image, even if the user can not hear the voice, the user can view the contents in the text string. The image generation unit 305 also generates image data for displaying an image corresponding to the image information and provides it to the display 322 even when other image information is provided from the plant monitoring server 100 have.
(Sound acquisition unit 306)
The voice acquisition unit 306 converts the voice information corresponding to the voice of the user from the microphone 323 of the headset 320 into a digital signal and transmits it to the plant monitoring server 100. [ to be. The voice information is interpreted by the information analysis unit 109 of the plant monitoring server 100. As described above, when the audio information includes information about the measurement value or status of the device 200, the audio information is monitored in the monitoring information database 108 as the monitoring information of the device 200. [
(Image acquisition unit 307)
The image acquisition unit 307 is a functional block that transmits image information corresponding to a predetermined image output from the camera 331 to the plant monitoring server 100. [ The image information is interpreted by the information analysis unit 109 of the plant monitoring server 100. [ As described above, when the image information includes information on the measured value or the status of the device 200, it is monitored in the monitoring information database 108 as the monitoring information of the device 200. [
(Location information acquisition unit 308)
The position information acquisition unit 308 is a functional block for acquiring the current position of the portable information terminal 300 based on the GPS satellite signal received by the GPS antenna 332. [ The position information acquisition unit 308 also refers to the output of the GPS satellite signal and the built-in azimuth detection device (such as an electronic compass or azimuth detection gyro) to detect the azimuth that the portable information terminal 300 is headed toward. The location information acquisition unit 308 provides the plant monitoring server 100 with a combination of the current location with the plant monitoring server 100, for example, (latitude, longitude, and azimuth). The acquisition of the current location by the location information acquisition unit 308 may be performed by using a location information specifying system in the room, such as a wireless LAN, , And position specification by ultrasonic waves (including infrared rays) may be used. As the location specification using the wireless LAN, for example, the router is identified and the location is specified. The location determination using the QR code is performed by attaching a QR code specific to the device 200 and reading the QR code with the camera 331 to identify the location of the specific device 200 ). The ultrasound location specification specifies the device 200 that communicates with the portable information terminal 300 by providing ultrasonic communication functions to both the portable information terminal 300 and the device 200 and performing ultrasonic communication.
(Operation information acquisition unit 309)
The operation information acquisition unit 309 is a functional block that stores the character information input by the user operating the operation unit 333 in the memory 310. [ The user identification information among the character information stored in the memory 310 is transmitted to the plant monitoring server 100 at a timely time after the communication between the portable information terminal 300 and the plant monitoring server 100 is established.
(Transmission unit 302)
The transmitting unit 302 transmits the user identification information acquired by the operation information acquiring unit 309, the location information acquired by the location information acquiring unit 308, and the location information acquired by the sound acquiring unit 306 Or the image information acquired by the image acquisition unit 307 to the plant monitoring server 100. The plant monitoring server 100 receives the image information acquired by the image acquisition unit 307,
(Operation 1-4)
Fig. 10 shows a flow chart for explaining the operation according to the first embodiment. In Fig. 10, steps S101 to S111 are executed in the plant monitoring server 100, and steps S301 to S306 are executed in the portable information terminal 300. Fig. The series of processes of these flowcharts are repeatedly executed at regular intervals or at arbitrary timing designated by the user. The contents of the processing in each of the following steps is an example. Even if the order of steps is changed, a plurality of steps may be processed as one step, or one step may be divided into a plurality of steps.
First, the user operating the portable information terminal 300 inputs his / her user identification information from the operation unit 333 after turning on or resetting the terminal. This user identification information is stored in the memory 310 and transmitted to the plant monitoring server 100 at an appropriate timing prior to the monitoring operation.
In step S101, the plant monitoring server 100 determines whether or not the user identification information has been acquired. If the user identification information has been acquired (YES in step S101), the plant monitoring server 100 proceeds to step S102, And acquires user-defined information with reference to the user-defined information database 101.
By the way, the user wearing the portable information terminal 300b moves within the plant. When the user moves, the portable information terminal 300 acquires a new current position. That is, the portable information terminal 300 determines whether or not the positional information acquiring unit 308 has acquired new positional information in step S301. If the positional information is acquired (step S301: YES), the process proceeds to step S302 (Latitude (N), hardness (E), and direction (D)) newly acquired to the plant monitoring server (100).
In step S103, the plant monitoring server 100 determines whether or not new location information has been acquired from the portable information terminal 300. If acquired, the plant monitoring server 100 proceeds to step S104. The device identification unit 104 refers to the device definition information database 102 in step S104 to determine whether the portable information specified by the acquired location information (latitude N, longitude E, and direction D) And searches for the device 200 in a predetermined positional relationship with the current position of the terminal 300. [ In the present embodiment, the device 200 located at " near " or " front "
In step S105, it is determined whether or not there is a device 200 in a predetermined positional relationship with the current position of the portable information terminal 300. When the device 200 in a predetermined positional relationship exists (Step S105: YES), the process proceeds to step S106. The information extracting unit 105 searches the monitoring information database 108 in step S106 and extracts monitoring information to be provided to the specified device 200 based on the user definition information. That is, the "measurement value" and "status" of the corresponding device 200 are extracted and output.
Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S107, and the voice information generation unit 106 generates voice information corresponding to the voice provided in the portable information terminal 300, based on the extracted monitoring information. That is, based on the monitoring information extracted in step S106 and the device definition information read from the device definition information database 102, the voice information generation unit 106 generates a sentence And generates sentence information according to the template.
Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S108. The importance determining unit 111 determines whether or not the user-defined information acquired in step S102 and the monitoring information extracted in step S106 And determines the importance of sentence information.
In step S109, the transmitting unit 114 transmits the sentence information generated in step S107 and the importance information determined in step S108 to the portable information terminal 300. [
Further, in step S103, when the new position information is not acquired (step S103: NO), the plant monitoring server 100 ends the processing routine. When the device 200 in the predetermined positional relationship does not exist in step S105 (step S105: NO), the processing routine is terminated. When the new position information is not acquired (step S103: NO) or when the device 200 in a predetermined positional relationship does not exist (step S105: NO), when the user intentionally issues a stop instruction (Step S109), and the received portable information terminal 300 may continue to transmit the repeated voice (step S303-306). Also, the portable information terminal 300 may process the previous voice repeatedly until the next sentence information from the step S109 of the plant monitoring server 100 is acquired (step S303-306).
In step S303, the portable information terminal 300 determines whether or not the sentence information has been transmitted from the plant monitoring server 100. If the sentence information has been transmitted (step S303: YES), the portable information terminal 300 proceeds to step S304 The speech synthesizing unit 303 generates speech information by speech synthesis based on the sentence information while referring to the sound source database 304a to sound the speech corresponding to the sentence information.
Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S305, and the speech synthesis unit 303 refers to the speech style definition information database 304b with the importance information transmitted at the same time as the sentence information as an index, .
Then, the process proceeds to step S306, and the speech synthesizing unit 303 transmits the speech-synthesized speech information with the speech quality, the repetition count, and the sound level corresponding to the degree of importance according to the acquired speech mode, thereby providing speech to the user .
The plant monitoring server 100 also transmits image information having the same content as the monitoring information provided by the voice information to the portable information terminal 300. In the portable information terminal 300, The image information may be outputted to the display 322 of the display unit 320 and displayed. The monitoring information having the same content as that of the audio information is provided as an image so that the contents of the monitoring information can be notified to the user by the image even if the user can not hear the sound for notifying the monitoring information due to ambient noise or the like, It is possible to secure a certain notice.
As the plant monitoring server 100, it is determined in step S110 whether there is any other device 200 in a predetermined positional relationship with the current position of the portable information terminal 300, S110: YES), the processes of steps S106 to S110 are repeated.
The portable information terminal 300 repeats the steps S304 to S306 every time it receives the sentence information and the importance information (step S303: YES), so that the voice information for the other device 200 in the predetermined positional relationship with the current position / RTI >
(1-5 effects)
The first embodiment has the following advantages.
(1) According to the first embodiment, since the monitoring information of the device 200 is extracted on the basis of the user-defined information, the unnecessary monitoring information is excluded and the necessary monitoring information is provided to the user. It can be obtained efficiently, and it is possible to take prompt and appropriate action.
(2) According to the first embodiment, since necessary and sufficient monitoring information is provided to the user by voice, the user can obtain necessary and sufficient monitoring information without interfering with the user's visibility work or the hand- .
(3) According to the first embodiment, since the monitoring information is extracted according to the user's " belonging ", it is possible to provide appropriate monitoring information according to the belonging when the contents of the monitoring work are made different depending on the belonging Do.
(4) According to the first embodiment, since the monitoring information is extracted according to the "job title" of the user, it is possible to provide appropriate monitoring information according to the job title when the contents of the monitoring job are made different according to the job title Do.
(5) According to the first embodiment, since the monitoring information is extracted according to the user " preferences ", by registering the special interest in the monitoring work by the user, appropriate monitoring information corresponding to the user's interest It is possible to provide.
(6) According to the first embodiment, the monitoring information can be extracted when the positional relationship between the portable information terminal 300 and the device 200 is " near ". Therefore, It is possible to provide the surveillance information even when it is not facing and to call attention.
(7) According to the first embodiment, since the monitoring information can be extracted when the positional relationship between the portable information terminal 300 and the device 200 is " front ", the user can recognize the orientation of the device 200 It is possible to provide appropriate monitoring information when the user is paying attention to the device 200 to be monitored.
(8) According to the first embodiment, the degree of importance can be changed and set according to the user's "affiliation", "position", "positional relationship" between the portable information terminal 300 and the device 200, It is possible for the user to be directed to the orientation of the device 200 and to provide the monitoring information of the device 200 in a proper voice mode according to the "belonging", "position", and "positional relationship" Do.
(9) According to Embodiment 1, when the "status" of the device 200 is "NG", a high importance level can be set and the voice can be provided in a voice mode corresponding to high importance, It is possible to call the user's attention without delay.
(10) According to the first embodiment, when the user registers the " preference ", a high importance is set and the voice can be provided in a voice mode corresponding to the high importance. Therefore, It is possible to appropriately provide monitoring information corresponding to the user's interest.
(2. Embodiment 2)
Embodiment 2 of the present invention relates to a mode of acquiring monitoring information of a device directly on the portable information terminal side based on the identification information of the device provided by the plant monitoring server and providing voice based on the acquired monitoring information .
(2-1. Plant monitoring system)
Fig. 11 shows a system diagram for explaining the outline of the plant monitoring system according to the second embodiment. 11, the plant monitoring system 1000b according to the present embodiment includes a plant monitoring server 100b, devices (200b-1, 2, 3, ..., N) The portable information terminal 300b, the controller 500, the field device communication bus 401, and the upper network 400. In this case, The controller 500, the field device communication bus 401, and the upper network 400 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.
The plant monitoring system 1000b according to the second embodiment is configured such that the plant monitoring server 100b is connected to the portable information terminal 300b via the upper network 400 so as to be able to communicate with the portable information terminal 300b, Is provided to the plant monitoring server 100b via the controller 500. The plant monitoring system 1000 according to the first embodiment is the same as the plant monitoring system 1000 according to the first embodiment.
However, the plant monitoring system 1000b according to the second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the device 200b and the portable information terminal 300b are configured to directly communicate with each other. More specifically, the device 200b according to the second embodiment and the portable information terminal 300b are configured to be capable of wireless communication, and the portable information terminal 300b can communicate with the device 200b without intermediation of the plant monitoring server 100b It is possible to acquire the supervisory information directly. There is no limitation on the communication protocol of the wireless communication, but wireless LAN, infrared short-range communication standard, and short-range wireless communication standard can be adopted as long as it is a method capable of near-distance communication.
(2-2. Plant monitoring server 100b)
12 is a block diagram of the plant monitoring server according to the second embodiment. As shown in Fig. 12, the plant monitoring server 100b is the same as the first embodiment in that it receives user identification information, location information, optional audio information, image information, and the like from the portable information terminal 300 , And the device identification information and the user definition information are provided to the portable information terminal 300b instead of the voice information and the importance information.
As shown in Fig. 12, the plant monitoring server 100b according to the second embodiment includes, as a database, the same user defined information database 101, device definition information database 102, Information database 108, but it does not include the sentence template database 107 and the importance definition database 112 of the first embodiment. This is because the portable information terminal 300b generates voice information in the second embodiment. In the second embodiment, since the portable information terminal 300 is configured to be able to acquire the monitoring information directly from the device 200, when it is not necessary to store the monitoring information of the device 200 in a specific place , And the plant monitoring server 100b does not need to have the monitoring information database 108.
The plant monitoring server 100b according to the second embodiment further includes a user defined information acquisition unit 103, a device identification unit 104, an information extraction unit 105b, an information analysis unit 109, and a monitoring information updating unit 110. [ The plant monitoring server 100b according to the second embodiment is different from the plant monitoring server 100b according to the second embodiment in that the audio information generating unit 106 and the importance determining unit 111 are not provided and that the information extracting unit 105b has the device identification information and the user definition information Which is different from the first embodiment. The receiving unit 113, the user-defined information obtaining unit 103, the device specifying unit 104, the information analyzing unit 109, and the monitoring information updating unit 110 are the same as those in the first embodiment, do. Hereinafter, functional blocks different from those of the first embodiment will be mainly described. Since the portable information terminal 300 is configured to be able to acquire the monitoring information directly from the device 200 in the second embodiment, the plant monitoring server 100b can acquire the monitoring information from the information analyzing unit 109 and the monitoring information updating unit 110 may be omitted.
(Information extracting unit 105b)
The information extraction unit 105b is a functional block that searches the device definition information database 102 and extracts identification information of the specified device. Specifically, the information extracting unit 105 extracts the device definition information database 102 with the device ID as an index for the device 200 that the device identifying unit 104 has determined to be "near" or "front" And extracts " device ID " of the corresponding device 200 and outputs it. For example, when the device 200 determined to be located in the " neighborhood " is a temperature sensor, the information extraction unit 105b extracts the device ID " 1003 " of the temperature sensor from the device definition information database 102. [ If the device 200 determined to be located on the "front" is a fan, the information extraction unit 105b extracts the device ID "1006" of the fan from the device definition information database 102. The information extraction unit 105b also outputs the user-defined information acquired by the user-defined information acquisition unit 103 to the transmission unit 114. [
(Transmission unit 114)
The transmission unit 114 transmits the device identification information extracted by the information extraction unit 105b and the user definition information acquired by the user definition information acquisition unit 103 to the portable information terminal 300b through the network 400 Consists of.
(2-3 portable information terminal 300b)
The portable information terminal 300b according to the second embodiment is configured so as to be capable of communicating with the plant monitoring server 100b and is capable of communicating with the plant monitoring server 100b by using the device identification information of the device 200b provided from the plant monitoring server 100b, Communicates with the device (200b) associated with the device identification information, acquires the monitoring information provided from the device (200b) corresponding to the device, and generates voice information to pronounce the voice corresponding to the monitoring information Consists of. The portable information terminal 300b is a portable computer device having at least a communication function, a position detection function, and a voice generation function, and is a wearable computer as in the first embodiment. However, the portable information terminal 300b can be an HMD, a smart phone, a notebook type or a laptop type personal computer, a mobile phone, a PDA, or the like as other hardware aspects.
13 is a block diagram of the portable information terminal 300b according to the second embodiment. 13, the portable information terminal 300b has a configuration as a wearable computer. The portable information terminal 300b, together with the receiving unit 301, the transmitting unit 302, and the memory 310, The image acquiring section 307, the position information acquiring section 308, the operation information acquiring section 309, and the device communication section 311 . The portable information terminal 300b also has a sound source database 304a as a database.
The voice synthesizing section 303b, the image generating section 305, the sound acquiring section 305b, the sound acquiring section 305b, the sound acquiring section 305b, The image acquiring unit 306, the image acquiring unit 307, the position information acquiring unit 308, and the operation information acquiring unit 309 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, configurations different from those of the first embodiment will be described.
(Device communication unit 311)
Transmits the device identification information and part of the user definition information provided from the plant monitoring server 100b to the device 200b to be monitored and communicates with the device 200b associated with the identification information via the communication network 402 Function block. Specifically, the device communication unit 311 refers to the user definition information to determine whether or not the device 200b specified in accordance with the device identification information is an object to be monitored. When it is determined that the device 200b is to be monitored, To the target device 200b. Specifically, the user can specify the user's interest in the " preferences ". For example, information for identifying the device 200b to be monitored can be registered in the " preferences ". The device communication unit 311 refers to the "preferences" of the user-defined information, and when the device 200b specified in accordance with the device identification information is registered in the " To be monitored. For example, the user can register the device 200b to be monitored as a plurality of groups. Concretely, it is possible to register "measurement device" or "control device" in the "preference" as a monitoring target. When the device 200b is registered as a group, the device 200b is to be monitored when the device 200b specified in accordance with the device identification information belongs to a group registered in the " preferences ". For example, when the " measurement device " is registered in the " preference ", the device 200b is a monitoring object when it is a " measurement device " such as a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor,
On the device 200b side, upon receipt of the device identification information, the device 200b recognizes that the device is to be monitored and operates to transmit its own monitoring information to the portable information terminal 300b. The communication standard applied to the communication network 402 between the portable information terminal 300b and the device 200b is suitable for the short-range wireless communication standard as described above, but may conform to other communication standards.
(Speech synthesizer 303b)
The voice synthesis unit 303b is a functional block for acquiring the supervisory information provided from the device 200b to be supervised and generating voice information for pronouncing the voice corresponding to the supervisory information. Concretely, when the supervisory information is transmitted in the same manner as the speech synthesis section 303 of the first embodiment, the speech synthesis section 303b refers to the speech source database 304a and performs speech synthesis Thereby generating audio information for sounding the audio corresponding to the monitoring information. The voice corresponding to the voice information is provided to the user mounting the headset 320 from the speaker 321 of the headset 320.
(Operation 2-4)
Fig. 13 shows a flowchart for explaining the operation according to the second embodiment. 13, Steps S121 to S127 are executed in the plant monitoring server 100b, Steps S321 to S326 are executed in the portable information terminal 300b, Steps S201 to S202 are executed in the portable information terminal 300b, (Step 200b). The series of processes of these flowcharts are repeatedly executed at regular intervals or at arbitrary timing designated by the user. The contents of the processing in each of the following steps is an example. Even if the order of steps is changed, a plurality of steps may be processed as one step, or one step may be divided into a plurality of steps.
13, the user operating the portable information terminal 300 inputs his / her user identification information from the operation unit 333 after turning on or resetting the terminal. This user identification information is stored in the memory 310 and transmitted to the plant monitoring server 100b at an appropriate timing prior to the monitoring operation.
The plant monitoring server 100b determines whether or not the user identification information has been acquired in step S121. If the user identification information has been acquired (step S121: YES), the process proceeds to step S122, And acquires user-defined information with reference to the user-defined information database 101.
By the way, the user wearing the portable information terminal 300b moves within the plant. When the user moves, a new current position is acquired in the portable information terminal 300b. In other words, the portable information terminal 300b determines in step S321 whether or not the location information acquisition unit 308 has acquired new location information. When the new position information has been acquired (step S321: YES), the process proceeds to step S322 where the position information newly acquired in the plant monitoring server 100b (latitude N, longitude E, and direction D) .
In step S123, the plant monitoring server 100b determines whether or not new positional information has been acquired in the portable information terminal 300b. If acquired, the plant monitoring server 100b proceeds to step S124 (step S123: YES). The device specifying unit 104 refers to the device definition information database 102 and stores the portable information specified by the acquired location information (latitude N, longitude E, and direction D) in step S124 And searches for the device 200b having a predetermined positional relationship with the current position of the terminal 300b. The device 200b located at the " neighborhood " or " frontal " of the current position is searched as the device 200b in the predetermined positional relationship.
In step S125, it is determined whether or not there is a device 200b in a predetermined positional relationship with the current position of the portable information terminal 300b. If there is a device 200b in a predetermined positional relationship (Step S125: YES), the process proceeds to step S126. In step S126, the information extracting unit 105b searches the device definition information database 102 to extract "device ID" which is device identification information of the device 200b in a predetermined positional relationship. Also, the user-defined information acquiring unit 103 transmits "affiliation", "title", and "preference" (see FIG. 4) of the record corresponding to the "user ID" of the user as the acquired user definition information. The extracted device identification information and user definition information are transmitted from the transmission unit 114 to the portable information terminal 300b in step S127.
When the new position information has not been acquired in step S123 (step S123: NO), the plant monitoring server 100b ends the processing routine. If the device 200b in the predetermined positional relationship does not exist in step S125 (step S125: NO), the processing routine is terminated.
In step S323, the portable information terminal 300b determines whether or not the device identification information and the user definition information have been transmitted from the plant monitoring server 100b. (YES in step S323), the process proceeds to step S324. In step S324, the device communication unit 311 refers to the user definition information to determine whether or not the device 200b specified by the device identification information is a monitoring target . For example, by referring to the " preferences " of the user-defined information, it is determined whether or not the device 200b in a predetermined positional relationship is registered as a " preference " If it is the device 200b to be monitored (step S324: YES), the process proceeds to step S325, where the device communication unit 311 transmits, for example, the device ID as the device identification information of the target device. In addition, the transmission of the device identification information is for preparation of communication on the device 200b side, and is not essential information. For example, instead of the device identification information, the portable information terminal 300b may transmit and receive communication establishment information for direct communication. It may also be shifted to the direct monitoring information request step S326.
In the device 200b, if the device identification information is received in step S201, it is determined that the device is to be monitored, and the device 200b prepares for transmission of the monitoring information.
In the portable information terminal 300b, the process proceeds to step S326, where the device communication unit 311 transmits a command requesting the device 200b for the monitoring information. If the device 200b receives the command requesting the monitoring information, the device 200b transmits its own monitoring information to the portable information terminal 300b in step S202. For example, if the device 200b to be monitored is a measurement device, the latest measurement value is transmitted. If the device 200b to be monitored is a control device, the current operation status is transmitted as a status.
If the portable information terminal 300b has received the monitoring information, the voice synthesizing unit 303 generates voice information for voice notification to notify the user of the monitoring information in step S327. The voice information generated by the voice synthesis is supplied to the speaker 321 of the headset 320 and is provided to the user as a voice for notifying the monitoring information.
The monitoring information provided as audio information may be generated by the image generating section 305 as image information and outputted to the display 322 of the headset 320 to be displayed. The monitoring information having the same content as that of the audio information is provided as an image so that the contents of the monitoring information can be notified to the user by the image even if the user can not hear the sound for notifying the monitoring information due to ambient noise or the like, It is possible to secure a certain notice.
The audio information generated by speech synthesis may be, for example, a simple one in which the measurement values and status, which are the monitoring information transmitted from the device 200b, are read aloud. In the plant monitoring server 100 of the first embodiment May be a complex one executed by the voice information generation unit 106 of the mobile terminal. In such a configuration, the speech synthesis unit 303b further includes a sentence template database. It is also possible to change the voice mode according to the degree of importance applied in the first embodiment. In the case of such a configuration, the apparatus further includes an importance definition database and a voice appearance database.
In step S328, if the user instructs the operation unit 333 to provide additional monitoring information (step S328: NO), the portable information terminal 300b continues the processing of steps S326 to S327 again, 200b further respond to the monitoring information in response thereto (step S202). When the monitoring of the device 200b is ended (step S328: YES), the process ends.
If the portable information terminal 300b does not transmit the device identification information and the user definition information (step S323: NO) and if it is determined from the user definition information that it is not the monitoring target device 200b (step S324: NO), the process is once terminated.
(Effects 2-5)
The second embodiment has the following advantages.
(1) According to the second embodiment, the portable information terminal 300b can communicate directly with the device 200b to acquire the monitoring information, and the plant monitoring server 100b and the portable information terminal 300b communicate with each other This is the case only when the user moves the current position (Fig. 14: step S321). Therefore, the amount of traffic between the plant monitoring server 100b and the portable information terminal 300b can be made small, thereby reducing the processing burden on the plant monitoring server 100b. This embodiment is effective when the information processing capability of the portable information terminal 300b is relatively high.
(2) According to the second embodiment, since the device 200b to be monitored is selected based on the user-defined information, if the user pre-registers one or more devices 200b to be specifically monitored, Surveillance information of the device 200b is provided as a voice whenever the device 200b passes a predetermined positional relationship from the device 200b, for example, to " near ". Therefore, the user can acquire the necessary monitoring information only by arbitrarily moving around the plant without checking the position of the device 200b to be monitored in advance.
(3) According to the second embodiment, since necessary and sufficient monitoring information is provided to the user by voice like the first embodiment, it is possible to perform the monitoring It is possible to acquire sufficient monitoring information to the user.
(6. Variation example)
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible without changing the gist of the present invention. For example, the following modifications are possible.
(6-1) In the above embodiment, measurement devices such as a flow rate sensor, a temperature sensor, and a pressure sensor, and control devices such as a valve, a heater, a pump, and a fan are used as the device 200 to be monitored. It is not limited. If the user can output usable information, it is possible to monitor the apparatus and the machine which deviate from the concept of the measuring apparatus or the control apparatus. For example, a machine tool having a computer device, a rolling device, a printing device, and any other device can be monitored.
(6-2) In the above embodiment, "user ID", "affiliation", "title", and "preference" are exemplified as the user definition information to be stored in the user definition information database 101, Do not. If the information represents the characteristics of the user, information defining the user can be applied according to other social, technical, and perspective concepts.
(6-3) In the above embodiment, the device definition information to be stored in the device definition information database 102 includes "device ID", "installation location", "classification", "measurement control object" , &Quot; unit " are illustrated, but are not limited thereto. It can be applied in place of or in lieu of these pieces of information as long as the pieces of information indicate the characteristics of the device. Since some of these pieces of information are partially overlapped with the information stored in the monitoring information database 108, redundant information may be omitted.
(6-4) In the above embodiment, the "device ID", "type", "measurement control object", "measurement value", "status" are exemplified as the monitoring information to be stored in the monitoring information database 108 , But are not limited thereto. If the device 200 is information that can be output, it is possible to apply it in addition to or in place of these pieces of information. Since some of these pieces of information are partially overlapped with the information stored in the monitoring information database 108, redundant information may be omitted.
(6-5) In the first embodiment, the sentence for the measuring instrument and the sentence for the control instrument are exemplified as the sentence template database 107, but these sentences are merely illustrative and naturally different sentences may be used. The number of sentence templates may be increased further depending on the type and situation of the device. And the sentence information may be generated by reading different sentence templates depending on the importance. For example, it is possible to apply a sentence that can give special attention to an emergency in the event of an emergency, such as when the operation state of the apparatus is NG.
(6-6) The settings stored in the importance level definition database 112 in the first embodiment are merely illustrative, and are not limited to these examples. Depending on the importance, it is arbitrary to associate any user-defined information or monitoring information. Also, the three stages of importance degree "1" to "3" are merely examples, and they may be more multifaceted or may be suppressed to two stages.
(6-7) In the first embodiment, the mode is changed to "sound quality", "number of times", "volume" as the sound mode definition information, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is possible to add anything else if it is an acoustic element capable of recognizing the difference of importance to the user by changing it. For example, it is also possible to change the speed of sound reproduction or to add an alarm sound, effect sound, etc. in accordance with the sound.
(6-8) In the second embodiment, the portable information terminal 300b transmits the location information of the device 200b, and the plant monitoring server 100b transmits the location information of the device 200b to be inspected The device identification information and the user definition information are transmitted as the tag information. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Different information may be transmitted from the plant monitoring server 100b to the portable information terminal 300b as long as the information is required by the portable information terminal 300b. For example, the plant monitoring server 100b transmits past measurement values and statuses of the device 200b to be monitored, so that the portable information terminal 300b provides these past measurement values and status information to the user by voice . With this configuration, the user can compare the current measured value or status of the monitoring target device 200b with the past measured value or status, and can recognize the change in the measured value or the changed status of the status, The operation state of the device 200b can be more accurately grasped and diagnosed.
(6-9) In the second embodiment, the portable information terminal 300b transmits the user identification information and the position information, and the plant monitoring server 100b is configured to transmit the device identification information and the user definition information as the tag information , But it is not limited thereto. If the information processing capability of the portable information terminal 300b is higher, part or all of the processing on the plant monitoring server 100b side may be performed in the portable information terminal 300b. For example, when the portable information terminal 300b holds information corresponding to the user-defined information database 101, the device definition information database 102, and the monitoring information database 108 on its own, Or the like. With this configuration, the portable information terminal 300b can directly acquire the necessary monitoring information by communicating with the device 200b without intervening the plant monitoring server 100b.
(6-10) In the first embodiment, the plant monitoring server 100 generates the sentence information (text), and the portable information terminal 300 generates the speech information (speech data) corresponding to the sentence information by speech synthesis, However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the plant monitoring server 100 may generate and transmit voice information by voice synthesis, and the portable information terminal 300 may voice the voice information. According to this configuration, it is possible to reduce the information processing load in the portable information terminal 300. [
